
Class T _ \fe - _ 
Book 






1| ; ,;^;^ 




A WORKSHOP OF HIS OWN. 



A BOY'S WORKSHOP 



WITH PLANS AND DESIGNS 



FOR IN-DOOR AND OUT-DOOR WORK 



BY 



A BOY AND HIS FRIENDS 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

HENRY RANDALL WAITE 



- 



BOSTON 
LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY 



■tf 



* 



Copyright by 

D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY 






$ nss of 

$erfcoick * £mi% 

Boston. 



CONTENTS. 

Chap. Pack 

I. The Shop Itself 7 

II. The Sawhorse and Workbench ... 13 

III. The Sawhorse and Workbench {Continued) . 21 

IV. The use of Tools 30 

V. How to make a Tool Cabinet .... 38 

VI. How to make a Tool Cabinet {Continued) . 47 

VII. Hinges and Lock 54 

VIII. Curtain Poles t2 

IX. Book-rest 71 

X Book-rest. {Continued) 79 

XL A Bed Table 85 

XII. Cabinet 89 

XIII. A Boy's " Catchall " 96 

XIV. How to Build a Portable Wooden Tent . . 107 
XV. How to Build a Portable Wooden Tent. {Con.) 117 

XVI. How to make a Fernery 127 

XVII. A Boy's Railway and Train . . . . 138 



CONTENTS. 



XVIII. How to make a good Fly 

XIX. How to bind Magazines . 

XX. How to Photograph 

XXI. Archery for Boys 

XXII. Sir Walter Scott's Idea . 

XXIII. Knots, Hitches and Splices 



154 
163 
169 
186 
196 
204 



INTRODUCTION. 



The typical American boy, at some period in his life, has a 
taste for the mechanic arts. Before he is out of pinafores, he 
surreptitiously lays hold of edged tools, and with unlimited self- 
confidence tries to make something. If his success lies chiefly 
in the direction of making pieces of furniture and bric-a-brac, 
and the covering of his juvenile apron with gore, followed by a 
tableau in which a shrieking youngster, an angry sire, and a 
sympathetic mother are about equally prominent, the effect is 
merely to determine the amount of the boy's grit, and to pre- 
pare the way, in the battles of the future, for the survival of the 
fittest. While a certain number of the pinafored experimenters, 
pensively regarding healed gashes and flattened thumbs, will 
ever after sedulously avoid contact with chisels and hammers, 
the plucky boys, who form the majority, will hardly wait for the 
shedding of belladonna plasters, and the bleaching of gory 
aprons, before seizing upon the instruments of their discomfi- 
ture, with a firm determination (founded on the boyish belief in 
the intelligence and moral responsibility of inanimate objects) 
to let those tools know that they know how to handle them 
without getting hurt. After various efforts for the mastery, the 
implacable foes of the unskilful juvenile, such as the hatchet, 
the saw and the hammer, will shake their sides in malignant 
laughter over the final discomfiture of a second installment of 
the rising generation, and will own themselves partially subject 
to the ten and twelve-year-old veterans who have come tri- 
umphantly through the struggle, and can use such tools as hap- 
pen to fall into their hands with a more or less murderous de- 
gree of execution. To this large class of boys, intrepid, ambi- 
tious, industrious, and full of manly instincts, America looks for 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

its inventors, its engineers, architects, designers, skilled artisans, 
and most successful business men in every walk in life. They 
constitute, in fact, what may be termed the " Honorable Guild 
of Amateur Artisans," and it is for the benefit of the members 
of this juvenile guild that " A Boy's Workshop " is sent forth, 
with the best wishes of its editors and publishers. 

It will bring to thousands of lads just such information in 
regard to the first steps in the mechanic arts as they most need, 
and will enable them, with little other direction, if wisely en- 
couraged by their elders, to so develop whatever mechanical 
ingenuity they may possess, as to make it easy to determine 
whether they shall ultimately join the ranks of those wholly 
devoted to the useful arts, or continue to be amateurs, using 
to good advantage whatever skill they have acquired in connec- 
tion with other occupations. 

But the parents and instructors of boys have no less reason 
than the boys themselves for awarding to this book a cordial 
welcome. In neither home nor school is adequate attention now 
given to the training of the hands to skill in the use of any of 
the tools employed in the industrial arts. It need hardly be 
stated that every boy should have at least a little training in this 
direction, while to thousands, such training is an essential part 
of their equipment as bread-winners and as useful citizens. " A 
Boy's Workshop" is calculated to meet a need in this import- 
ant respect, and on this account alone, is worthy of a place in 
the library of every home and school. 

The desire to turn the energies of hands and brain upon con- 
structive work, is worthy and honorable. Let it have proper 
encouragement. We have too little of the industry which follows 
habits well formed, and too little of the thrift which follows 
skill. Society, the State, and the nation have need of the boy who 
has a workshop. May every boy who wants one, have one, and 
God bless him ! 

HENRY RANDALL WAITE. 



A BOY'S WORKSHOP. 



I.— THE SHOP ITSELF. 

IF there is anything a boy really likes to have, it is 
a workshop of his own. 

But then it must be really his own ; a place where 
he can pound and hammer, saw and whittle, and 
make all the litter and noise he wants to, without 
having to clear up things. 

A boy likes a place where he can leave a thing 
half finished and be sure of finding it again. He 
wants a key to the door, so that he can lock up his 
treasures and know he shall find them safe the next 
spare hour he gets to work at some pet notion. 

Housemaids, and sometimes even mothers, don't see 
the difference between unfinished work and rubbish, 
and off into the kindlings goes something that has 
cost a boy a lot of thought and work. No wonder a 

7 



8 a boy's workshop. 

fellow who isn't a saint, but only a human boy, gets 
out of patience and wishes emphatically, that " folks 
would just let his things alone ! " 

So I say, let every boy have his own workshop 
and a key to it. 

Where shall the workshop be? 

I don't think it makes much difference. There 
must be plenty of light, of course, and the room must 
not be damp. My first workshop was in the attic, 
with a skylight. I liked it first-rate ; but it was a 
bother to bring the lumber up-stairs, and then, too, 
the shavings and chips had to be carried down. I 
got along with it capitally though for three years ; 
but I like my down-stairs shop better. The noise of 
pounding and sawing never disturbs any one either, if 
it is below. One end of the woodshed can be parti- 
tioned off for a shop if there is no room in the 
house. 

Now you've got your workshop, the next thing is, 
" what shall go into it ? " 

There are two ways to fit up a workshop. The 
easiest and the quickest is also the most expensive : 
i. e. get your father to tell the carpenter to fit it up, 



THE SHOP ITSELF. 9 

and then buy a tool chest. The objections are : the 
expense and the doubtful quality of the tools in a 
ready-filled tool chest ; then, to my thinking, you lose 
a lot of fun yourself. It is a good lesson in car- 
pentry to make your own work bench and tool chest, 
and the money you save that way can go into better 
tools. 

Every boy ought to remember this, a cheap tool is 
probably a dear tool. The very best is really the 
cheapest in the end, and you can't do good work 
with poor tools. 

Of course the boys I am talking to are not in the 
infant class. A boy who has never fooled round 
with tools, who has never cared enough about car- 
pentry to try his hand at tinkering up broken chairs 
and boxes, the boy who hasn't got past mashing his 
fingers when he drives a nail, and doesn't know the 
difference between cutting with a saw and whittling 
with a knife, isn't the boy to care whether he has 
a workshop or not. 

But I should like to help the boys who have had 
" toy tool chests," and have used them enough to find out 
"ihey are no .good," and are really ambitious to do 



IO A BOY S WORKSHOP. 

neat, serviceable work, and to know enough about the 
right use of good tools to be ready and able to do the 
hundred little odd jobs that come up in a house and 
can often be as well done by a boy carpenter as by a 
regular workman. I know one boy who in one year, 
doing odd jobs himself, saved the full cost of his 
outfit. 

When I began I couldn't find anybody to tell me 
the things I wanted to know. I had to find them 
out for myself, and that is just what I am going to 
try and tell you. So we start with this understanding. 
You are in earnest ; you wish to do good, substantial 
work ; you haven't a great deal of money to spend, 
and you are willing to let patience and labor make 
up for the lack of money, knowing, too, that the 
lessons you will get making your work bench and 
tool chest will be worth considerable. 

If your mother can spare you an old bureau, or an 
old-fashioned washstand with a lid and a cupboard, 
it will be handy in one corner of the workshop, not 
only to hold your tools till the chest is made, but to 
keep all sorts of odds and ends in by and by. 

You ought to have a stout .pair of overalls, or a 



THE SHOP ITSELF. II 

workman's apron made of ticking, with a good pocket. 
I have both, and find them handy. If it's a little job, 
I slip on the apron ; if a long one it pays to get into the 
overalls. Your clothes keep clean, and there's noth- 
ing to do when the dinner bell rings but to slip off 
the working uniform and wash your hands. Carpen- 
try is cleaner work than printing. I know, for I have 
tried both. 

Now for the list of essential tools. If it sounds 
large and expensive, you must remember that once 
bought they will last for years, and are your capital, 
your stock in trade. From time to time you will add 
to them. If you live in Boston or the vicinity, I 
should advise you to go to Goodnow and Wightman's, 
176, or to Wilkinson's, 184 Washington street, or 
some other first-rate establishment, and get what you 
want. On an order like this there would be quite a 
discount. 

The prices vary from time to time, so those in the 
list are given simply that you may have a general idea 
of the cost. 

I will say here that it will pay you to have two or 
three practical lessons in the use of a saw, a plane, 



12 A. JBOY'-S WORKSHOP. 

and a chisel, from a carpenter. If you are- in the 
city, there are regular classes where you can get such 
instructions. It will save patience and tools. 



Hammer 75 to $1.00 

Saw (crosscut ) 16 to 18 inch 1.25 

" (splitting) " "..... ^35 

Chisel 1 inch socket firmer , .60 

" X - 2 " " " ' 25 

Bit brace (plain 1.50) ratchet 2.00 

Bits 3-8, 1-2, 5-8 80 

Small bits 1-4 and less for screws, the set .50 

c , . (at Wilkinson's ask for a gunmaker's ) 

Screw-dnver < , ■ . . , , . , \ 40 

( and machinist's drop forged J 

Hatchet 

2 ft. rule 



• 75 

• •• • 1 25 

Try square (9 inch) 1.00 

Oil stone (1 1-2 or 2 inches wide) .40 

Mallet (large wooden) 35 

Small iron Block Plane (Bailey's) .1.25 

Jack or Fore Plane, Stanley's 20 inch 2.25 

Draw Knife 7 inch 70 

$15.10 



Nails and screws of various sizes can be got at 
any hardware store. If you send an order through 
the village store, be sure to send to first-class estab- 
lishments, and procure the following makes : 

Planes, Bailey's or Stanley's, iron and wood ; chis- 
els and gouges, Buck or Moulson; braces, Barber; 
saws, Henry Distort; rules and squares, Stanley; 
files, Stubs, Greaves and Sons. 



II. — MY SAWHORSE AND WORKBENCH. 



N 



OW that you have a fair assortment of tools to 
work with, the next thing is to have a work- 
bench ; for even an 
accomplished car- 
penter can't do 
much without a 
good, strong, firm 
bench. And of 
course you must 
have a sawhorse be- 
fore you can have a 
bench ; but a saw- 
horse is a simple affair to make, and I will tell 
you how to set about it right away, for you ought 
not to buy anything that with a little trouble you 
can make. Besides it will be good, plain practise 
with try-square, saw and plane. 




14 A BOYS WORKSHOP. 

The sawhorse for the average boy ought to stand 
about twenty or twenty-two inches high, so that you 
can kneel with one knee on it easily. 

You must get two pine boards : 

A y 6 feet long, 6 inches wide, i 1-2 inches thick. 
By 12 " " 6 " "i " " 

Take A, cut off two and one half feet : if not 
already planed, plane nicely on all sides. (Un- 
planed boards are cheaper than planed boards.) 

Take this two and one half foot board and meas- 
ure four inches from the end. Lay on try-square 
and draw a line across the board at dotted line. {See 
right end of Jig. 1.) 

Then measure five and one half inches more from 
this line : with try-square extend second line across 
the board. Measure one inch on all these lines from 
the outer edge of board, and connect by lines b b 
and c c. With cross-cut saw cut carefully through 
the one inch from a to b; then with chisel cut out on 
line b b. Don't cut quite as deep on the lower edge, 
for these openings are for the legs, and should slope 
out a trifle, that the legs may be farther apart on the 



MY SAWHORSE AND WORKBENCH. 



?5 



floor than at the top when nailed on — one eighth of 
an inch will make difference enough for a good slant. 
All iour leg sockets must be done alike, else your 
horse will be bow-legged and unsteady. 

Now plane the twelve-foot board B (unless it is 
already planed). Square one end nicely; measure 
off twenty-two inches. Lay try-square and draw a 
line across the board. Take the cross-cut saw and 
saw neatly on the line. Smooth the end with a block- 
plane, bevelling it slightly, so it will fit firmly on the 
floor. This is for one leg. Do three more legs in 
the same way, always trimming the ends with block- 
plane, to make them stand upon the floor true 
and even. 

One thing, boys, you must remember : 
In planing across the grain never plane 
to the end at first, for you will chip the 
corners and spoil the end. Keep revers- 
ing the block ; i. e. first plane from A to B, 
then from B towards A. {See Jig. 2. ) 

Before fitting the legs into their sockets, plane the legs 
to fit the five and one half inch spaces made in the first 
board. The inner upper edge of the legs must come ex- 




i6 



A BOY S WORKSHOP. 



Ttq 3 



actly level with the top line of the board. The 
outer edge will of course be higher on account of 
the slope of the slot, and must be planed smooth 
with block-plane after the legs have been firmly 
nailed into place with three or four eight-penny nails. 
To keep the legs from spreading apart at the ends, 
you must make a sort of brace. 

Take a piece of the board left af- 
ter cutting off the legs, and fit it 
across the legs under the top board 
in this way : Hold it close to the 
board and against the legs, then 
draw a pencil line, following the 
outside slant of the legs. ( See Jig. 
3.) Now with cross-cut saw cut across on this line ; 
trim with block-plane before nailing; put one piece 
on each end, nailing through to the legs. 

One thing more and then your horse is done ; 
ready to stand if not to go. 

Find the middle of one end of top board, draw a 
line three inches long down the board, with try- 
square. Then on the end 'measure one inch each side 
of this centre line. {See Jig. 4.) Draw line from a 




MY SAWHORSE AND WORKBENCH. If 

to b, and cut on lines with splitting-saw; this will 
leave a triangular space which you will find very- 
useful by and by in cutting small pieces of 
wood. 

From board A there ought to be left a piece about 
three and one half feet long, and from board B a 
piece about two feet long. These you will put aside 
for further use. 

Now for the Bench (with a capital B, because it 
is the principal partner in the firm of Carpenter and 
Co.). 

Buy three good two-inch pine planks. Say two 
planks ten feet long, one foot wide, and one eight feet 
long, six inches wide. Ready planed, at the saw- 
mills around here, these cost about eight cents a foot; 
a little less unplaned. Besides these, you want one 
ten-foot inch board, one foot wide ; this should cost 
about four cents a foot. Before you really start on 
your Bench, look around your workshop and decide 
where you will have it stand. There must be a space 
ten feet long against the wall, with plenty of light. 
A window at the left is the best. 

One thing you must have which I didn't reckon 



18 a boy's workshop. 

with the tools ; but it is easy to prepare. I mean a chalk 
line. There are fancy ones, 
but the sort I'm going to 

m 3~ 

describe does just as well. 3J 

Get a piece of curtain- 
cord twelve or fifteen feet long, and make a loop 
on one end ; then provide yourself with a good piece 
of common chalk ; when you want to use it, chalk 
the line well by passing the line over the chalk as 
you would wax thread ; to use it put the loop over 
a nail at one end of the line you wish to chalk, hold 
the other taut, and snap the line smartly in the mid- 
dle ; it will leave a straight chalk line for a guide in 
cutting. 

Now take the shorter of the two-inch planks, the 
one eight feet long, make a mark in the middle 
of each end, drive a small nail in the left-hand 
end exactly in the middle ; having chalked your line 
well, slip the loop over the nail, draw the line taut 
down the middle of the board to the other or right- 
hand end, holding the line close to the board ; pluck 
the string sharply in the middle and you will find an 
even chalk line the whole length of the board. 



MY SAWHORSE AND WORKBENCH. 



*9 



T'9 S- 



Put one end of the board over sawhorse, take the 
splitting-saw and cut carefully down the line, holding 
the saw a little more vertical than you would a cross- 
cut saw. 

Having divided your board thus, lengthwise, you 
will have two strips eight feet long, three inches wide, 
two inches thick. 

With large plane smooth the rough sides of these 
strips as well as you can, resting the boards on the 
sawhorse. One end of each 
strip must be good and 
square : if not so already, 
take small block-plane and 
square it as best you can. 

From the squared end 
measure thirty inches; draw 
a line across the board. 
Then by aid of try-square 
make another line one 
eighth inch beyond. This makes it easy to saw 
straight across the wood with a cross-cut saw. Take 
block-plane and square the end nicely. 

You have now prepared one leg of your bench. 




20 A BOY'S WORKSHOP. 

Cut another thirty-inch length in the same way from 

the piece left. Repeat this with the other strip. 

You now have four legs for your bench just alike 

with nicely squared ends. 

For cross-pieces cut from the pieces that remain 

two lengths of nineteen inches each ; cut and trim as 

before. 

Take one pair of legs (*. e. two of the thirty-inch 
strips), lay them on the floor on the two-inch side, just 
nineteen inches apart. At one end, between the legs, lay 
one of the nineteen-inch pieces also on the two-inch side, 
so it will be flush with the squared ends of the legs ; 
hammer the legs on to the ends of the cross pieces 
with two or three twenty-penny nails. This job 
ought to be done very neatly and accurately, so that 
the shape will be exactly like fig. 5. If you are care- 
less and let the legs spread while nailing, your Bench 
will be hopelessly rickety. 



III. — MY SAWHORSE AND WORKBENCH. 

{Continued?) 

'HT^O give greater firmness to the bench there must 
-*■ be some brace made this way: Take the 
ten-foot inch board ; square one end ; measure 
twenty-three inches with try-square ; cut off nicely 
with cross-cut saw. Now you have a board twenty- 
three inches long and twelve inches wide. Divide in 
middle at each end ; connect the points with chalk 
line, then cut down this line with splitting saw. 

You will have two pieces twenty-three inches long 
and six inches wide ; these are the two end braces. 
Lay one of these pieces across the legs you have just 
joined, at the closed end. All the edges must be 
flush ; if not, plane them and make them true. You 
will see that if you have measured and cut carefully 

thej will come right, for the legs are each two inches 
21 



2 2 A BOY'S WORKSHOP. 

thick, making four inches, and the cross-piece is 
nineteen inches, making twenty-three in all ; just the 
length of your brace. Nail the brace firmly into 
both legs and cross-piece with six-penny nails. Do 
the same with the other set of legs. 

Now in the space you have chosen for your bench, 
stand up both pairs of legs endwise to the wall, and 
six feet apart, leaving full two feet clear beyond, as 
your bench will be ten feet long when done. 

Take the two big planks (the ten foot ones, two 
inches thick), measure two feet from each end of each 
plank : draw a line in direction a a. {See fig. 6.) Then 
parallel to a a, draw another, b b, one inch farther 
toward the middle of the board ; then another, c c, an 
inch beyond that, always measuring away from the 
ends. On these lines a a and b b mark the places 
for your screws in alternate spaces, thus — 



Remember always that screws or nails put in diag- 
onally like that hold more firmly than the same num- 
ber in a straight line. 

Before putting in the screws, see that the legs 



MY SAWHORSE AND WORKBENCH. 23 

stand parallel and close to the wall ; put the first 
board on the legs so that the back edge of board is 
even with the back edge of the legs. Screw firmly 
into place, taking care to have the outer edge of the 
legs directly under the first or dotted line; this 
brings the screws evenly along the cross-piece. 

Lay the second board close to the first, securing in 
same way; the front edge of this second board ought 
to project one inch beyond the legs. The heads of 
the screws on the top of the bench must be sunk. 
You have left a board eight feet long, one foot wide, 
and one inch thick. 

This board is to be put on in front directly under 
the top board and against the legs. It should come 
flush at the right end only, leaving space of two feet 
at the left. Nail this board on to the legs with six- 
penny nails. You have now a capital bench, which 
only needs a vise to complete it. 

Cut from the board B (left from sawhorse) a length 
of eighteen inches. Square both ends nicely ; lay 
this against the left hand front leg, flush with the 
outer edge and coming close under the front board, 
and nail firmly on to leg. 



24 



A BOY S WORKSHOP. 



T/qf 



For seventy-five cents at a hardware store, you can 
buy a wooden screw about two feet long for vise, with 
shank one and three fourths 
inches diameter. 

On the front board, ten 
inches from top of bench, 
and about five inches from 
left edge, draw a circle one 
and three fourths inches in 
diameter ; this circle when 
cut out should come as 
close to the leg as possible 
without cutting it. 

To cut this hole take a five eighths bit and bore a 
series of holes round the inside of the one and three 
fourths inch circle. {See fig. 7.) 

The piece in the middle will fall out and leave a rather 
rough hole ; but the edges can easily be trimmed. 

Then take the board A (the three and one half foot 
piece), cut it thirty-one inches long. Square one end 
and then round it as at D. (See fig. 8.) On the back 
side draw a pencil line through the middle; place 
the board against the left leg, with the sharp edge 




r^e 




MY SAWHORSE AND WORKBENCH. 27 

flush with top of bench, so that the pencil line will 
bisect the circular hole. Draw a similar circle on 
the board, and cut out as before. 

Be careful in the doing of this, as the two holes 
must be exactly opposite for the screw to pass 
through. You ought to have two bits of wood left 
after cutting the legs and cross-pieces. Take one of 
these bits and put behind the front board on its 
two inch side and about three inches to the right of 
the left \^ and parallel with the leg. It should just 
clear the hole. Fasten securely, so that it will cross 
the joint A. It will serve as a brace, and also give a 
level bearing for the wooden nut which comes with 
the screw and is wound on the end of screw after it 
passes through the two holes. 

Your vise as it is will work all right for small 
pieces, but if you have a large article to hold, the 
loose board b will not keep its parallel position, for 
the thickness of the object you have in above will 
throw out the top end, and the lower end will of 
course swing in. To remedy this and make your 
vise adjustable to work of any size, you must do one 
m^re thing : 



28 A boy's workshop. 

A little to the right of leg, and one inch from the 
lower edge of the fixed upright, cut a slot two inches 
high and one inch wide ; make a corresponding hole 
in the loose upright. 

Take a strip of board two feet long, two inches 

wide, and one inch thick. On a 

line drawn lengthwise through 

the middle measure one inch from 

end and mark ; then two inches 

from that point on same line make 

] a second mark ; at both those 

points bore holes with half-inch 

bit and fit in a peg at each hole. The pegs will be 

one and one half inches apart. 

Then at intervals of one inch bore two alternate 
rows of holes with half-inch bit, as far as the length 
of the strip allows. Run this strip through the slot in 
loose board as in Jtg8, and through the corresponding 
slot in upright put a peg in a in front of loose board 
and a peg in b behind loose board ; these pegs will 
hold the strip firm in the slot in the loose board. 

According to the size of the object to be held in 
use, draw the loose board toward you and put third 




MY SAWHORSE AND WORKBENCH. 29 

peg into hole at proper distance to keep the loose 
board parallel with the fixed upright. 

You see by having holes enough in the strip you 
can adjust the vise to any size. Of course you 
understand that this is not needed in small work. 

If you look closely at fig 6 you will find that there 
is still one thing unexplained : the rows of holes in 
the front board. 

When you have some long piece of work in your 
vise you will find it troublesome to keep it level ; if 
you have a number of holes bored in the front of 
bench, with a good peg to fit, by changing the peg 
according to the height desired, you can raise the right 
end of your piece of work to the right level. 

A plain hook is a desirable addition to the work- 
bench : its use is to hold a board when you wish 
to plane the surface. It is adjustable according to 
the thickness of the board, and should be set in and 
screwed on to the bench at point Y. It will cost at 
hardware store about seventy-five cents. 

Note. — In fig. i (the sawhorse) one leg is drawn in dotted 
lines to show the way the leg is fitted into the hole, and the 
right slant. In fig. 6 the broken space in front board is to show 
the position of brace on right leg. 



IV. — USE OF TOOLS. 

T T 7E begin with the saws, of which you have two : 
cross-cut saw, and splitting saw. 
The use of a cross-cut saw, as the name implies, is 
to cut across the grain or fibre of the wood : it is one 
of the most indispensable tools we have. The teeth 
are finer and closer together than those of the split- 
ting saw, which, as the name describes, is intended to 
cut with the grain, usually lengthwise, of a piece of 
wood. Never try to substitute one for the other, for 
you would injure your tools. When you want to use 
a cross-cut saw, the saw should be held at an angle 
of about forty-five degrees, and must alsc be held 
steadily without swerving to the right or left ; other- 
wise the teeth of the saw will stick, and you cannot 
make a clean cut. 

You will observe in looking at a saw that the teeth 
are set, as it is called ; every other point turning a little 

h 



USE OF TOOLS. 3 1 

away to the right or left of a straight line ; the reason 
of this is, to make the cut wider than the saw blade ; 
otherwise after cutting in a little way the friction 
would make the blade bind. Saws are, or should 
be, in proper condition to use when they are bought ; 
if not, or if by any accident the teeth should get bent, 
you must have the saw set without meddling with it 
yourself. 

A splitting saw is used differently from a cross-cut 
saw ; it should be held more nearly upright ; the cut- 
ting is always done on the down stroke. Never press 
the saw against the wood ; the teeth will catch, and 
the saw bend, and the wood won't be cut if you add 
any weight to that of the saw itself. 

There is a certain amount of knack required in 
order to saw well, but practise will improve even the 
most awkward workman. Always saw slowly and 
easily, in a sort of regular time. Be sure the wood is 
held firmly and doesn't hop. 

USE OF PLANES. 

We have jack-planes, smoothing-planes, and block- 
planes. When you want to make aboard thinner, or 



32 A BOY S WORKSHOP. 

smoother, it has got to be planed ; also the sides and 
edges of a board are sometimes rough, or you wish 
to bevel them. 

If the grain of the wood is perfect, there is no 
trouble about planing in either direction, but generally 
the grain runs in a slight slant or angle to the surface 
of the board instead of parallel to it. If, then, you 
start your plane and plane "against the grain " of the 
board, the edge of the plane will catch in ends of the 
grain lines, and the surface will be chipped instead of 
smoothed. If, however, you start it and plane "with 
the grain," the ends of the grain lines are smoothed 
down, like the feathers on a bird's wing when you 
stroke it down instead of up. So it is well to be sure 
about the grain before you begin to plane. Some- 
times the grain is twisted and runs one way in one 
part of the board and another way in another part in 
a wavy line. Then you must vary the planing accord- 
ing to the surface. You would soon learn these sim- 
ple things perhaps, but to know them at the outset 
will save you some vexation. 

The smoothing-plane is much shorter than the jack- 
plane, and is used for smoothing smaller pieces which 



USE OF TOOLS. 33 

would be lost under the jack-plane, and also for 
smoothing inequalities left by the jack-plane. I have 
put no smoothing-plane on your list, as for ordinary 
work the block-plane can be used as a smoothing- 
plane. Thus : Turn the small thumb-screw at the 
front of the block-plane and press it forward ; this 
opens the mouth of the plane so that the plane can 
be set more and cut a larger shaving. 

Now for the proper use of the block-plane, remem- 
bering to restore it to its original set if you have been 
using it as a smoothing-plane. To smooth the ends 
of boards you need a small plane which can be set 
very fine; i. e., with the blade projecting very little 
from the face of the plane, and with the mouth so 
closed that the blade will not chip in cutting. 

One important principle must be practically learned 
before you can do good work : Everything in carpen- 
try from beginning to end must be done on the square. 
In planing, above all things, the square must begin 
every bit of work, and end it, and be used to test it, 
all the way along; it is just what the name implies, a 
try square ; so perhaps the next thing explained had 
better be some of the uses of the square. 



34 a boy's workshop. 

To give all the uses of this apparently simple tool 
would be to give you a thorough knowledge of geom- 
etry, and fill a volume. I will, however, give some of 
the more common uses : 

i. In sawing across a board, if you wish to have 
the cut true and even, you must use the square. One 
edge is, of course, already planed, and from this all 
your lines are drawn. You wish, we will suppose, to 
saw three inches from the end of your board ; lay the 
thick or handle part of the square close against the 
oven edge of the board, three inches from the end ; 
you will find that the blade lies flat across the board 
at a right angle with the edge, and a pencil line 
drawn close to the blade will be a guide for cutting. 

2. To test the evenness of the end of a board 
which you have been trimming with a block-plane : 
Apply the square to the side and edge of the board ; 
if the work is true, the blade will be level with the end 
of the board ; if uneven, the defect is quickly seen. 

3. It is well to test your square itself ; thus : Lay 
your square snug against a straight edge with the 
handle to the left ; draw a line where the edge of the 
blade comes : then reverse the square, having the 



USE OF TOOLS. 35 

handle to the right; draw a similar line : if the square 
is true the lines will coincide ; if they diverge ever so 
little the square is imperfect, and you should buy an- 
other. 

4. In planing the edge of a board, put the handle 
of the square against the face of the board; the blade 
will then go across the edge, and you can soon see if 
it is even ; i. e., at right angles with the face of the 
board. 

Hammering a nail seems a very simple thing, but 
there's a right way and a wrong way to do that, as 
you'll find for yourself after you've split two or three 
bits of work ; but you might as well learn the right 
way at first. 

If you look at a nail of any size, from a brad to a 
twenty-penny spike, you will find that the sides are 
parallel and straight, and two are wedge-shape or 
sloping; also one of the straight sides is finished 
smooth, the other is rough. A nail is virtually a 
wedge. Now the principle of the wedge is to split 
things when the wedge goes with the grain, as when 
you split a board with an axe or hatchet ; for an axe 
is a wedge, as you will see if you think about it. 



36 a boy's workshop. 

If, then, your nail is put in wedge-fashion with the 
grain, ten to one the second good tap with your ham- 
mer splits the board ; if, however, you turn the nail 
the other way, so the wedge side is across the grain, 
and the straight side with the grain, the nail is held 
firm by the grain pressing against the wedge, and the 
board doesn't split. This is the reason that fine work 
is done with brads better than with tacks, for tacks 
are wedge-shaped on all sides, and in driving them if 
the wood is thin it is very apt to split. 

Always start a nail in the direction you mean to 
have it go, and don't depend on straightening it after- 
wards. If, however, it gets a wrong slant, don't bend 
it back with your fingers, nor hit it a knock sideway 
with your hammer which will likely enough break the 
nail short off ; but with every regular stroke of your 
hammer give an inclination in the right way, and it 
will get there. 

Don't hold on to the nail too long ; in soft wood 
the second hammer tap ought to find the nail firm 
enough to stay. Don't make the first or the second 
hammer stroke a long hard one ; if you do, likely as 
not you'll mash your fingers. The first tap should be 



USE OF TOOLS. 37 

light and short ; get the swing gradually, a few inches 
first, adding a few inches more with each stroke ; by 
the time you want full force to drive the nail home, 
you'll find you can't hit anywhere but on the head of 
the nail. This is something that practise alone can 
make you perfect in. If you watch a good building- 
carpenter, it seems as if he threw the nail into place 
with one hand and hit it on the way. 

Don't think you must look at each nail in order to 
place it right. Your eyes must be in your finger tips ; 
the smooth side goes with the grain. 

Always keep the different sizes of nails separate ; 
then you won't be bothered by finding the wrong nail 
in your fingers when you are in the midst of a job. 

In using chisels and gouges never strike with a 
hammer, but always with a wooden mallet ; the ham- 
mer splits the handles. 

In most chisel work it is better to put the bevel 
edge to the line you wish to cut until you have cut 
out most of the wood, then finish with the other edge 
and the pressure of your hand instead of the mallet. 

It will be easier to explain the use of the other 
tools as we come to them in construction. 



V. — HOW TO MAKE A TOOL CABINET. 

"X TOW that you've got some very good tools, it 
"*■ ^ is time you knew how to take care of them as 
well as to use them. 

The best tools will grow rusty and dull, and shabby, 
also, even if they don't hide away out of sight just 
when you most want to use them, unless you have a 
proper place to put them and always remember to put 
them in that place tvhen you have done using them. 

I suppose you think you must have a tool chest 
for this ; now a tool chest is a very good thing if you 
want to carry your tools on a journey, i. e. if you are 
a city boy and want to take your kit up into the 
country and have the tools safe from jarring under 
the hands of the baggage-smashers; but I've found 
that a tool chest isn't as handy to have in the work 
shop as a tool cabinet ; so I'm going to tell you how 
to make a good tool cabinet with less expense of money, 
38 



HOW TO MAKE A TOOL CABINET. 39 

material and labor than a tool chest would require. 

But you must be more exact and careful in meas- 
uring and cutting than you had to be in making the 
sawhorse and bench. In getting your materials, try 
to have the boards fully one foot wide and three 
fourths of an inch thick. It is easier to make esti- 
mates on these dimensions, and foot boards are 
usually the easier to obtain ; so all the measures for 
the cabinet are made with reference to these dimen- 
sions. If you happen to have boards that are wider 
or narrower, you must do a little figuring on your 
own account and make the proper allowance. 

For a tool cabinet three feet three inches long and 
two feet wide, which will hold all the tools on the 
list given in the first paper and leave room for several 
more that you will be likely to own by and by, you 
must have one six-foot board fully twelve inches wide 
and three fourths of an inch thick ; one seven-foot 
board, twelve inches wide, one half inch thick ; one 
nine-foot board, twelve inches wide, one half inch 
thick ; also a number of three fourths inch screws 
which you are supposed to have in stock ; one pair 
brass ( or iron ) hinges for three fourths inch board. 



4o A boy's workshop. 

and a hook for fastening, unless you prefer a lock. 

Take three fourths inch board ( the one six feet 
long ), plane both edges ; then by aid of chalk line 
and splitting-saw, cut off a strip two and one half 
inches wide, running the whole length of the board.* 

The board that remains should be nine and one 
half inches wide. Smooth the edge with plane enough 
to remove the roughness left by the saw ; then cut off 
another strip two and one half inches wide like the 
first. Smooth the edge of the remaining seven-inch 
board ; then divide this seven-inch board into two 
even strips which will be six feet long and about 
three and one half inches wide, perhaps a trifle less, 
from the loss in planing. 

All these strips will have one edge that has been 
planed and one left rough by the saw. If you lay 
them together you will find that you have two pairs 
of strips ; one pair two and one half inches wide, and 
one pair three and one half inches wide. Each pair 
must be alike in width, otherwise the cabinet will be 



* I do not explain again how to use a chalk line and a splitting-saw, for you 
ought to thoroughly understand that if you have read the other papers and 
made the sawhorse and workbench yourself. 



HOW TO MAKE A TOOL CABINET. 41 

uneven and lobsided ; so before going any farther lay 
the strips together and plane down any inequalities. 

Now take one of the three and one half inch strips 
with try square and block plane. Square one end ; 
measure three feet three inches from squared end and 
allow one eighth inch for waste in cutting.* Cut off 
square with cross-cut saw. Square end of piece cut 
and also of piece remaining. Measure twenty-two 
and one fourth inches and cut and plane as before. 
Do the same with the other three and one half inch 
strip. You have now two sides and top and bottom 
of main part of cabinet, and some small bits left for 
which we shall find a use ; i. e. you have two pieces 
three feet three inches long and three and one half 
inches wide, for sides, and two pieces twenty-two and 
.one fourth inches long and three and one half inches 
wide for top and bottom. 

Now take the two and one half inch strips ; cut 
three feet three inches off each, also twenty-two and 
one fourth inches as with the others. Each set of 



* Where accuracy is required always allow one eighth inch for waste in saw- 
ing ; draw line and saw on the line and plane off any thickness over and above 
the measure required. 



42 A BOY S WORKSHOP. 

pieces must be alike in length and width ; you have 
two pieces three feet three inches long and two and 
one half inches wide, and two pieces twenty-two and 
one fourth inches long, two and one half inches wide ; 
these are for sides, and top and bottom of door of 
cabinet. Lay these four pieces aside while we get 
ready for the back of the cabinet and front part of 
door. 

From the seven-foot board (after planing and 
squaring one end) cut off three feet three inches; 
plane square the ends and cut off another piece three 
feet three inches.f 

From the nine-foot board in the same way cut two 
similar pieces three feet three inches ; smooth edges, 
planing off as little as possible. 

The piece remaining will measure about two and 
one half feet in length; from this cut off a piece 
twenty-two and one fourth inches long. Saw strip 
three and one half inches wide, which to save confu- 
sion we will mark A; plane edges, cut off another 
strip two and one half inches wide ; mark this B. 

t Always remember to square and plane edges before measuring from them. 




THE TOOL CABINET OPEN. 43 



HOW TO MAKE A TOOL CABINET. 45 

Next a strip three and one half inches wide ; mark 
this C. Cut C so as to measure seventeen and one 
half inches in length. 

The cabinet is now mostly cut out ; the next step 
is to put it together. 

Take pieces for sides and top and bottom of cabi- 
net. Lay two sides parallel at a distance of twenty- 
two and one fourth inches apart ; put top and bottom 
in so they will be flush with end of sides. Nail the 
sides on to ends with six or eight-penny nails. Take 
care to keep the corners square, as they will be if 
the edges are even and kept flush. 

Before nailing on the back test the squareness of 
the frame in this way (unless your eye is very ac- 
curate ; even then it is a good thing to get in the habit 
of measuring exactly) : measure the diagonals from 
the opposite corner. If the measures are alike, all 
right; if, however, one diagonal be longer than the 
other, make it right with gentle, steady pressure on 
each corner with both hands. When the diagonals 
are exactly alike the corners will also be right angles. 
Now lay on two of the two and one half inch pieces 
(those three feet three inches long and one foot wide); 



46 a boy's workshop. 

be sure and keep all the edges flush and nail firmly. 

Do the same with pieces prepared for doors, and 
you will find you have two shallow boxes three feet 
three inches long and two feet wide (outside meas- 
ure); one will be three and one half inches deep, the 
other two and one half inches deep. 

Now take piece marked A, which is for a shelf in 
the cabinet ; measure and mark six and one half 
inches from right hand end (this is the length for 
the small plane); then measure and mark another one 
half inch beyond this point ; from this last point 
measure length of your oilstone, which is probably six 
or eight inches. The space remaining will make a 
sort of box, or tray, for rule, chalk line and reel, pencils, 
etc., when you have made some use of the bits of 
wood you had left after cutting the shelves. 

In the one half inch space between place for plane 
and oilstone put a little block one half inch wide 
and one inch long. At the end of space for oil- 
stone nail a strip an inch wide across the shelf, and 
a similar strip in front. This makes one side and 
front of tray ; the other side and back will be formed 
by the cabinet itself. 



VI. — HOW TO MAKE A TOOL CABINET. 

{Continued?) 

A FTER shelf A is fitted in this way, you will 
"*" nail it into its place in cabinet so that the top 

of shelf is just seven inches above top of lower shelf, 
or bottom of cabinet which serves for a shelf. 

After the shelf is fitted into its place in the cabinet, 
you will find that at one end you have a convenient 
little tray to hold such things as chalk-line, rule, pen- 
cils, and other small things that are always getting 
out of sight when you most need them. The plan for 
A is just six inches above lower shelf (or bottom of 
cabinet). 

N. B. All measurements now are inside measure- 
ments. 

B is twenty-two and one fourth inches long and 
two and one half inches wide. Draw a line down the 
middle of this strip (i. e., one and one fourth inches 
47 



48 a boy's workshop. 

from each side). Measure one inch from left-hand 
end and mark. Then from this point on pencil line 
measure one and one half inches and mark again. 
Repeat this until you have six points marked on the 
pencil line, with one and one half inch spaces between. 
From the last point measure one inch, and mark. 




TOOL-DOORS. 



Repeat at intervals of one inch until you have thir- 
teen with inch spaces. This should leave about three 
fourths of an inch on right end. 

On the first six marks (those one and one half inches 
apart) bore five eighths inch auger holes. These are 
for tool sockets. First two for the chisels you have 
already ; next three for the chisels or gouges you may 
have ; the last for the screwdriver. 

There must be doors for the tools to enter by ; so 
you must cut openings one half inch wide from the 
front of shelf to each hole. This is easily done with 
your cross-cut saw, leaving spaces as in drawing. 



HOW TO MAKE A TOOL CABINET. 49 

You have still thirteen marks with inch spaces. 
Bore nine holes a trifle larger than the shanks of the 
bits you are to place therein ; three of these bits you 
already have ; the other six spaces are for the bits 
you are likely to purchase by and by. 

The four remaining marks are for holes graduated 
in size, thus : First, one with three eighths inch bit 
(one of those belonging to smaller set) ; second, with 
one fourth inch ; third and fourth, with the next 
smaller sizes ; each bit going into a hole a size larger 
than itself. These smaller bits go in point down. 
It will be a great convenience to mark the numbers 
of the bits on the shelf against their sockets. 

Shelf B is to be nailed twenty and one fourth 
inches above shelf A. 

Now for shelf C. Ten inches from left-hand end, 
put small one half inch block for same purpose as 
similar block on shelf A ; i. e., to keep plane from 
sliding. Nail shelf C three inches above shelf A in 
left-hand side of cabinet. This little shelf of course 
does not reach across the cabinet like the others. 

Six and one fourth inches above shelf C, and four 
inches from left-hand side of cabinet, bore hole with 



50 a boy's workshop. 

one half inch bit, which shall have a slant downward. 
Parallel to this, and eight inches to the right, make 
another hole just like it. Insert in these holes wooden 
pegs two inches long. Be sure they fit firmly with 
back of cabinet. These pegs are for the draw-si ive 
to hang upon, as seen in diagram. 

Ten and three fourth inches above shelf A, and 
three inches from right-hand side, make one half inch 
hole slanting down ; one and one half inches beyond 
make another; insert pegs three inches long. These 
are for the mallet. 

The body of the cabinet is now fitted, and we will 
go to work on the cover. 

Take two blocks one inch square and one and one 
half inches long; draw a line lengthwise exactly in 
the centre of each ; cut down the line one half inch 
deep the length of block. Put one of these blocks slit 
uppermost on bottom shelf of door four inches from 
left-hand corner. Five and one half inches to the 
right, put the other; fasten into place with screws. 

Twenty-one inches above first block, four and one 
half inches from side of door, put block one inch 
square, one and one half inches long. This goes or 



HOW TO MAKE A TOOL CABINET. 5 1 

horizontally, parallel with lower block. In centre of 
this make small hole, say one fourth inch deep, with 
smallest bit. 

Make a second block just like it, and place five 
and one half inches to the right of the first one. 

Then from one half inch wood, cut two little strips 
two inches long, one half inch wide, for buttons. In 
the middle bore hole large enough for screw to turn 
freely ; attach to middle of upper blocks with screws. 
The tips of the saw-blades go into the slits in the lower 
blocks. The openings in the handles slip over the 
wooden buttons which you have just made, and which 
are horizontal when the saws are put on. and are then 
turned like the button on a barn door to hold the 
saws firmly in place. 

Now we must provide for the hatchet, so it will 
not get harm nor do harm. 

Take block of one inch wood, five inches long, 
three inches wide ; plane one half of one face in 
a slant from the middle, so one edge will be three 
fourths thick, leaving one half the block one inch 
thick, as at first. Bore two holes in the half that is 
still square, big enough for two screws to go through 



52 a boy's workshop. 

and fasten on to lower shelf or bottom of door. This 
block in its place is one inch wide at the bottom, and 
three fourths inches at top, leaving a kind of bevel 
five inches long for hatchet-blade, between block and 
back of door. Put hatchet in ; hold it upright and 
mark where handle needs support to keep it hori- 
zontal ; probably about nine inches from blade ; with 
screws fasten on two small brackets, or else put in 
slanting pegs, if you do not care about the looks out- 
side. 

Four inches from top, and five and one half inches 
from left-hand side, put similar bracket or peg ; three 
and one half inches further, on the same line, put 
another; these will serve to support the bit brace, 
and I have left enough room for the keyhole-saw, 
which you can see in the diagram, and which some 
time you will like to own. 

Now cut a piece of wood three inches long, two 
inches wide, and three fourths inches thick ; draw 
line across one end and down the edge two inches 
long. 

Cut this line out as you did for the slits for the 
saws, and then (slit up of course) with two screws 



HOW TO MAKE A TOOL CABINET. 53 

put through the lower part, fasten block at point ten 
inches from right-hand side, just far enough above 
the saws to clear them. This is for the try square, 
the slit being for the blade. 

Fifteen inches from left-hand side, and four inches 
from top, put a bracket ; on the same line, one and 
one half inches farther from the left side, put another; 
these are for the hammer. 

You now have all your tools in place. You will in 
all probability have had some tools in the house 
before we began, such as pincers, gimlets, perhaps 
a saw; but of course I have not a list of those 
things. 

So I have simply given you a good deal of room to 
put them in, and by this time you ought to know how 
to secure them in their places. 



VII. — HINGES AND LOCK. 

' I ^0 make the tool cabinet complete there must be 
hinges and a lock. These you can get at 
a hardware store. Ask for hinges for three quarters 
inch wood, and about three inches long ; you will 
need three hinges, and the screws to fit the holes. 
Brass hinges are best, and look neater and more 
tasteful than iron, though iron will do. If the screws 
don't come with the hinges, then look out some that 
will fit, from your stock on hand. 

The first thing for you to settle is which way you 
wish the cabinet to open ; i. e. to the right as in the 
diagram, or to the left as might be if the only place 
for your cabinet happened to be a corner which 
would not admit of opening to the right. Suppose 
the door is to open to the right. Find the middle of 
the front edge of the right hand side of cabinet. 
Mark across the edge, then measure one and one half 
54 



HINGES AND LOCK. 



55 



inches each way from that line and mark. This is 
the place for the middle hinge. Five inches from 
the lower corner on the same side, and five inches 
from the upper corner measure and mark; then 
measure three inches further from these last lines 
and mark ; these are for upper and lower hinges. 
In these three spaces, so marked, cut out rectangles 
as deep as the thickness of one wing of the hinge. 

Repeat these measurements, markings and cuttings 
on the left hand side of cover or door. Be careful in 
measuring so that the two halves of the cabinet will 
come together and exactly match. 

Now to put on the hinges : Take one hinge, shut 
it together tight, so as to be sure you are folding 
it the right way ; then open till the wings are at right 
angles. Lay left wing into space cut for it in right 
side of cabinet. Take care to have the wing fit 
neatly, letting the round edge of hinge project. 
Screw firmly into place. Put all th^ hinges in place 
on the cabinet before beginning on the cover. 

Now lay the cabinet down flat on your workbench, 
or on the floor. Put the cover down beside it, with 
a bit of board or blocks underneath thick enough to 



56 a boy's workshop. 

bring the hinge places of the door on a level with 
those of the cabinet. Then fasten the right hand 
wings of hinges into the places prepared on the left 
side of door. Be careful, as before, to have the 
round part of hinge project so that it will work freely 
and have the wings flush with inside of cabinet and 
door. 

When open, there will be a narrow space between 
the door and cabinet, but when closed 
they will fit tight. 

Now for a fastening : If you sim- 
ply wish to keep the cabinet closed 

FIG. I. 

when not in use, you can put a hook 
on the door, the eye on the cabinet. If however you 
wish to lock up your tools for safe keeping, you must 
invest in a good lock and key. The best sort for your 
purpose is what is called a chest-lock. {Fig. 1.) They 
come in various sizes, so I can't give exact measure- 
ments. It must of course go in the middle of the 
side opposite the hinges. 

As you look at the lock you will see that one face 
is smooth, and the other side, where you find the 
keyhole, is irregular. This irregular part is the one 




HINGES AND LOCK. 



57 



that sets into the wood. From the inside of cabinet 
(opposite the middle hinge) cut a place to correspond 
in size with the lock so that it will fit neatly. The 
opening for the key must of course be cut through 
on to the outside of cabinet. Be careful to do this 
neatly and cut out no more than is needful for the 
key to pass in freely. 

By and by, on a bit of nicer work, I will tell you 
how to put on a scutcheon to guard the keyhole, but 
it isn't necessary for this. The other part of the 
lock which has the tongue, or tongues, is fitted into 
the door of the cabinet in the same way ; the tongues 
of course projecting from the edge of the side. Be 
careful to have them come exactly opposite the open- 
ings for them in the cabinet side. You cannot be too 
exact in carpentry. The next thing is to fasten the 
cabinet securely against the wall. Of course you can 
stand it on the end of your bench, but it is better on 
the wall. 

You will need four strips of brass four inches long, 
one inch wide, and about one eighth thick, with four 
holes for screws bored in each piece. Two of these 
go on the top corners, and two on the lower corners 




58 a boy's workshop. 

of cabinet. Put them on so that the screws will go 

through into the inch-thick side of cabinet, not 

merely into the thinner back. Half the length of 

brass piece with two holes must project 

above on the upper corners, and below 

on lower corners. {Fig. 2.) 

You will want some one to hold the 

cabinet steady for you while you secure 

it with long heavy screws, two at each 

corner. Of course your tools are not in the cabinet 

while you are at work upon it. 

One word of caution : If the cabinet is to go in a 
corner, leave a few inches (i. e. the thickness of the 
door) measured outside between the wall and hinges, 
or you'll find you can't open the door. 

If you have carefully followed all the directions, 
you have now a good, plain, serviceable tool cabinet. 
If you would like to stain it, which would improve 
the looks, I will try to tell you how. You must not 
get discouraged if the first attempt doesn't turn out 
very well, for one must practise even to stain well ; 
but the cabinet is a good thing to start with. Of 
course the staining is easier done before the cabinet 



HINGES AND LOCR. 59 

is hung ; but a neat workman can do it on the wall. 
First determine the color you wish your stain to be. 
I should say black walnut, as it is the easiest to put 
on, and you will not be likely to tire of it. The 
quantities I give will do more than the cabinet ; but 
if stoppered tight will keep for future use, and for very 
small quantities you have to pay exorbitant prices. 

I haven't much faith in home-made stains; they 
cost about as much, and are not very satisfactory. At 
any oil or paint shop, get a quart of stain, which will 
cost forty or fifty cents ; one fourth pound dear glue 
for sizing — this ought not to be more than eight or 
nine cents ; one quart nice varnish (what is called 
inside coach varnish is the best), this will cost about 
seventy-five cents ; at same time get a small piece of 
putty, same color as the stain ; the man at the paint 
shop where you get your stain, will color the putty 
for you. With this colored putty fill up all holes made 
by nail heads or screws. 

If you are on good terms with a painter, he will 
likely enough lend you a couple of brushes. If you 
have to buy them, get one large and one small, cost- 
ing from fifty to seventy-five cents. 



60 A boy's workshop. 

See that the surface of the cabinet is free from dust ; 
to make sure, wipe inside and out with soft cloth. 
Stir the stain up thoroughly from the bottom of the 
can with a small stick ; repeat this frequently, other- 
wise your stain will not be even colored. 

With the large brush put on one coat of stain, re- 
membering always to draw the brush in o?ie direction 
and with the grain of the wood. 

Put on as evenly as possible ; always pat and press 
the brush on the side of the can so it will not drip, 
otherwise your stain will be streaky. Let this dry 
thoroughly for half a day where no dust is flying. 
Prepare the size by melting glue in warm water, add 
boiling water till thin and smooth, then add a spoon- 
ful of lime water. 

Clean the stain brush in warm water and use it for 
the size ; one coat put on evenly so as to cover every 
part stained ; clean your brush again in warm water. 
Next day put on the varnish ; this requires especial 
care. It must be a thin, even coat if you wish to 
have a creditable job. It is worth taking pains. It 
ought to have a day or two to dry in a place where 
no dust is flying 



HINGES AND LOCK. 6 1 

If you are in a hurry, you can use shellac, which 
dries almost instantly ; but for this very reason, is 
much harder to put on well. I always prefer the 
coach varnish. 

The small brush is handy for the shelves and 
corners. 

Make a neat job, and don't let the size or the var- 
nish get into lumps in the corners. 



VIII. — CURTAIN POLES. 

"P)ERHAPS this paper will sound more like uphol- 

stery than carpentry, but there is carpentry in 

it, and of the sort too that boy-carpenters can do just 

as well as men-carpenters, and make changes in 

accordance to the requirement of the windows 

for which they are planning, the material at hand 

and their own taste. Always remember that mere 

rules for such work are not enough, and that you 

must keep on hand a good supply of common sense. 

If you should look in the yellow-covered Farmer's 

Almanac, hanging by a loop in the chimney corner, 

you'd see, " About this time look out for clearing 

weather ; " that means clearing out and cleaning up 

and setting the house in order inside, as well as old 

Mother Earth outside : what our mothers call 

"spring cleaning." Curtains come down to be 

washed and put up again, and it's a good time, too, to 
62 



CURTAIN POLES. 



63 



put up curtains where there never have been any, for 
nothing makes a room look more homelike and invit- 
ing than drapery of some sort or other, no matter 
how simple. 

It used to be the fashion to tack curtains across 
the top of a window-frame with a strip of stamped 
brass-work called a cornice, or a bit of bright chintz, 
or turkey red, or something like a ruffle, to cover the 
edges ; but curtain poles, or rods and rings, are the 
fashion now. They are prettier than the other things, 
and have one advantage beside : the curtains can be 
pushed quite to one side when one wants more air or 
light, and can be drawn close together again when 
more perfect shade is needed. 

Suppose you want to fix up your own room to look 
pretty and not cost very much. I found it good fun 
to make something useful out of something other 
people had discarded as useless. I'll tell you how I 
made my room look cosey, and what I did it with. It 
had just one window, a half-dormer as they call it, 
and looked to the west, out over the hills ; but the 
sun shone in very bright and hot in the afternoon, 
and I had to have a dark shade which I fitted myself 



64 a boy's workshop. 

from one that had belonged to a larger window. 
It kept the sun out, but it was not pretty, and I was 
determined to have some draperies. Of course I 
could not make curtains, for a boy is more handy 
with a hammer than a needle; but when mother 
found what I was up to, she said she'd give me the 
curtains if I could do all the rest. They were very 
simple, just cream-colored Nottingham lace, and cost 
$1.00. They might have been made of unbleached 
strainer cloth at six cents a yard, with a ruffle, if this 
had been for your mother or sister who didn't mind 
sewing ; but it is the pole I mean to tell you about. 

I'm sure to look at it you would never guess what 
that pole was, or where I got it. 

Up in the attic, in one corner, I found an old 
United States map, so old, so out of date that as a 
map it had been useless for years and years, for it 
was printed when the State of Ohio was "way out 
West." The map used to hang in grandfather's 
library half a century ago. It had black rollers with 
acorn knobs on the ends. I thought right away that 
the smooth slender pole would be just the thing for a 
curtain pole if I could get the map off without spli*- 



CURTAIN POLES. 65 

ting the roller which was of soft pine stained black* 
A sharp knife and a little care did it. One of 
the knobs was easily loosened. Then I measured 
carefully over my window and cut the pole the right 
length and fitted the knobs smoothly into place. 
A little sandpaper and a coat of varnish made 
my stained pine roller look like ebony. But what 
was I to do for curtain rings ! The pole was too 
slender for the heavy wooden rings sold by the 
dozen at the upholsterer's ; besides I did not want to 
spend any money. Back to the attic I went and 
rummaged in what we call the " trumpery box," full of 
the odds and ends that accumulate in an old house. 
Among a lot of brass knobs and hooks and hinges, I 
came across a lot of dingy metal rings tied together 
with a bit of stout string. The rings were about 
an inch and a half across ; I could not tell what the 
rings were made of, they were so black, but I thought 
a good washing would bring out the complexion, so I 
put the rings into a bath of ammonia and soda, which 
soon showed that under the black coating was some- 
thing very much like brass. A stiff brush and a little 
fine pummice gave me a dozen glittering rings, 



66 a boy's workshop. 

six for each curtain. I divided the curtains evenly, 
with strong thread fastened the rings in place on the 
upper edge of each curtain and slipped them on 
to the pole. Two inches from the ends of the pole I 
screwed the little rings through which the cord had 
passed when the map was hung. A little hook at 
each end of the upper window frame served to hang 
my pole, which of course was very light, but heavy 
enough for muslin or lace. In the same " trumpery 
box " I found two brass knobs (door knobs, I guess 
they were), I screwed one of these each side of the 
window and looped back my curtains. There was 
my window, as new-fashioned or as old-fashioned as 
you choose to call it, but very pretty and inexpen- 
sive. 

There are few old houses in the country that 
would not give at least as much to work with as I 
had. The old rollers on old-fashioned paper shades, 
such as you will find in lots of up-country attics, 
would make just as good poles stained and varnished. 
Even the acorn caps are not essential, for many of the 
most fashionable portieres and curtain poles, nowa- 
days, especially those of bamboo, have no caps at all 



CURTAIN POLES. 67 

on the ends : only then you put a screw in at right 
angles, to keep the end ring from coming off. 

That was the first curtain pole that I put up. The 
next room I tried my hand on had a bay with three 
windows, and was harder to manage, but it did not 
cost very much after all. I saw an advertisement of 
an odd lot of curtain poles with rings and brackets 
complete for seventy-five cents apiece. Since then I 
have seen them advertised for sixty cents, which is 
cheaper than you can get the wood and turn them for 
yourself. 

I found that two poles would do for the three win- 
dows, for the side windows were narrow, and half a 
pole was enough for each. I only wanted two ends 
instead of the four that belonged with the poles, so a 
trifle was allowed, enough to give me some extra rings 
and two extra brackets. 

The first thing to do was to get the angle of the 
bay: this I did with some mathematical instruments, 
but you might not have those handy, and this way 
will give it near enough. Take a good-sized piece of 
stiff paper (stout wrapping paper will do), lay a 
straight edge on the floor against the mop-board 



68 a boy's workshop. 

of the middle window, and fola the end of the paper 
to exactly fit the side mop-board, something like this. 
Then fold the straight edges -together and you will 
have the angle shown in the dotted line. 

Measure length of middle and side windows and cut 





the poles at the angle shown by the folded paper : a 
few brads will secure the slanting ends when they are 
neatly put together. 

The brackets that come with these cheap poles are 
iron spikes bent up at one end. Two are used for 
each pole; they are driven into the wall about four or 
five inches from the ends of the poles, and the poles 
rest on the brackets ; of course the joined corners 
count as ends, and are supported in the same way. 
Some prefer to put ring-headed screws into the poles 
and slip the rings over the ends of the spikes ; and 
more expensive poles have brass "cup brackets" 
which of course are ornamental, but also expensive. 



CURTAIN POLES. 69 

The wooden rings have ring screws on which to 
fasten the curtains. The number used is a matter of 
taste and depends upon the stuff the curtains are 
made of, the size of the folds you want, and the num- 
ber of rings you have. Five or six do very well for a 
yard-wide curtain. Be sure and divide evenly ; put 
one ring at each upper corner and the rest as they 
come ; a few stitches with coarse thread will secure 
them, or better still, an inch of tape slipped through 
the ring and fastened by the doubled ends on to the 
edge of the cloth. You can buy curtain hooks if you 
like, and have them sewed on. These are something 
like big dress hooks : the advantage is, that when you 
want to take curtains down you just unhook them 
from the rings without taking the poles down at all. 

I know a boy who made a pretty pair of curtain- 
poles out of two straight, slender beech saplings ; he 
twisted rings out of stout wire and wound them with 
crossway strips of dark cloth. For muslin curtains, 
loops of bright ribbons instead of rings would be 
prettier still on such rustic poles. 

Would you like to know what curtains went on to 
my sixty-cent poles ? They are very " aesthetic '' in 



to a boy's workshop. 

color, but are just soft Canton flannel at a shilling a 
yard. The centre of olive, the sides dark crimson with 
bands between of darker olive. These are looped 
away on either side with bands made of the flannel and 
underneath are full curtains of six-cent scrim, (un- 
bleached). 

But curtain-making belongs to the girls, so having 
told you how to make the poles and put them up, I 
will leave the rest to them. 



IX.— BOOK-REST. 

J2)ERHAPS you would like now to make something 
-*" useful and pretty for your father or your big 
brother, so I will try to tell you how to make a book- 
rest like one I made myself for Christmas. It has 
no fancy carving about it, but is made (as you can see 
by the illustration) of straight pieces. 

The directions for rinding the angles might be given 
mathematically, so that you could get them for your- 
self with a little figuring, but it will be easier practi- 
cally to find the angles in the way I describe, and 
they will be accurate enough for this piece of work. 

For the book-rest you must buy some planed white- 
wood which is preferable to any other on account 
of staining. A piece eighteen inches long, twelve 
inches wide and one half inch thick, will be enough ; 
it will cost about ten cents. 

Lengthwise with chalk-line mark off eleven strips 
five eighths inch wide ; cut them with splitting-saw and 
7i 



72 A boy's workshop. 

plane, the sides cut with fore-plane, making each 
strip just one half inch in breadth as well as thick- 
ness. 

We will begin with the uprights for the front. 

Take one of these strips, square one end : then 

measure a little over one half inch down the stick, 

and with try-square make a continuous line around 

the stick. 

Find the centre of the end just squared by draw- 
ing diagonals, and then either with block- 
plane or knife, point the stick by putting the 
edge of knife on the continuous line on one 
of the faces of the square, and directing the 
blade toward the centre of end ; a steady, 
firm pressure will give a good bevel. Finish 
FIG ' *' the other three sides in the same way, and 
you will have a pyramid with square base for one end 
of your stick : cut the stick off square thirteen inches 
from the point. Finish two more sticks in the same 
way, and you will have your three front uprights. 

Now take another piece ; square one end as nicely 
as possible (everything depends in this job on the 
neatness and accuracy of your work), measure seven 



4 



?J 



BOOK-REST. 73 

and five eighths inches from squared end ; cutoff and 
square : you will have a stick seven and one half 
inches long. Make another like this from the piece 
left. These pieces we will mark A : they are the 
short uprights in diagram. Now cut two pieces 
twelve and one half inches long: square both ends; 
find exact middle, measure one fourth inch in each 
direction from middle and draw lines with square 
across the stick. Right and left on the side faces 
(not the one underneath), draw lines parallel with top 
face one fourth inch from it. These last lines show 
how deep you are to saw on the first two lines with 
crosscut saw. With chisel remove the little piece 
one half by one half by one fourth. Take care not 
to cut the stick deeper than the lines indicate. The 
sticks will look like fig. i. These are the cross bars, 
BB. 

From another stick cut three pieces six inches 
long: square both ends; these are marked CCC\ two 
belong to the back, and one for the front connecting 
CC. From short pieces left cut two pieces two and 
three fourths inches long, of course squaring the 
ends : these are DD, and go at side of front. 



74 



A boy's workshop. 



• ;^ 

»* 

i 



i 
i 



For uprights of back cut two pieces ten inches long: 
square ends. On a board or piece of paper mark 
on a line two points three and one 
half inches apart. From the right- 
hand point draw a perpendicular, the 
line connecting the two points being 
the base of a triangle. Lay one ten- 
inch stick from the left hand point 
to the perpendicular, making the hy- 
potenuse of a right-angled triangle. 
You will readily see how much of a 
bevel is required to make the lower 
end set firmly. It will probably be about one eighth 
of an inch; make the same bevel on the other ten- 
inch piece : these we will mark EE (the uprights for 
the back). Bevel the lower ends of the three-pointed 
sticks (the uprights for front) in the same way. {See 
base of fig. 2.) 

On one front upright, measure two and three 
fourths inches from point on face A : cut out bit one 
half by one half by one fourth as in piece B. Repeat 
at eight inches ; again at ten and five eighths inches 
from point of stick. This completes middle upright. 



BOOK-REST. 



75 



— /-«»^ 



Now to return to pieces EE. On a board or paper 
mark in line three points three and one half inches 
apart. Hold beveled end of pointed upright on 
point one, so that a point Kten inches from bevel 
will be perpendicular to point two. Stand bevel end 
of E on point three, so that the other end will rest 
against poin t Y. You will then see the bevel needed on 
upper end of E to 
make it fit against 
point K It will be 
about an inch long. 

Treat the other 
E in the same way, 
taking care that 
both bevels start 
from same face of 



A a. 




FIG. 3. 



stick. Square end of new stick : cut off six inches 
and square again. At point three inches from end 
cut out bit one half by one half by one fourth, as in B. 
This is the stick F. 

Cut two sticks ten inches long : square ends. These 
are GG. 

The pieces are all cut out; now of course you had 



76 A boy's workshop. 

more whitewood than these measures, but it is so 
cheap it seemed best to allow for mistakes, and the 
spoiling of two or three sticks in cutting bevels, etc. 
The bits left always come handy. 

In putting the parts together you must be very 
careful. You will need some one-inch brads and 
some seven-sixteenths or three eighth ones also, and 
about two feet of brass spring wire, two French 
screws one inch long (slim ones), and two five eighths 
inch ones. 

Take first the pointed piece for the middle of 
front : the one with the squares cut out of it : fit one 
of the B's into the upper place and the other into the 
lower one. Put piece F into the middle slot ; put 
two brads through each piece (BBF) and into the 
pointed one. Turn the whole over so the face A 
is down. 

Take two pieces marked A ; with inch-brads fasten 
pieces D endwise, so that upper face of D will be 
two and one eighth inches from end of A. 

Place one A between the two B's on the right 
of pointed stick with D pointing to the right; you 
will find that the end of F touches A at a point 



BOOK-REST. 77 

two and one eighth inches from the bottom, so that 
F and D divide A plus one half inch (eight inches) 
into thirds. 

Place the other A and D facing just opposite on 
the other side of pointed stick. You will find that 
the ends of the A's touch the B's at a point half-way 
between the end of B and the pointed piece. Se- 
cure in position with inch-brads. 

Place one of the other pointed sticks to the right, 
the other to the left of ends of B and £>, and fasten 
so that the end of upper B is two and one half inches 
from point, and D two and one eighth inches from 
upper B and lower B slightly over two inches from 
bottom of bevel. In placing these two pointed pieces 
be sure and have the face a (Jig. 2) down. 

Now for the back. Take the pieces marked E\ 
measure two and five eighth inches from upper ends ; 
fasten one of the pieces C by the ends to these 
points, and the second C at a point a little over two 
inches from bottom. 

Fasten upper beveled ends of the E's to backs of 
points x (see picture) with short brass screws and a 
couple of brads. 



78 a boy's workshop. 

Next take pieces G, and measure two and three 
fourth inches from end : bore holes large enough to 
admit long screws ; with brads fasten third C at points 
one and one half inches from ends of G, and one and 
one fourth inch from holes. (This is to support the 
book.) Then screw G's directly under B and A, the 
long ends directed backward. You will find the 
seven-inch ends will touch the lower part of pieces E 
about one half inch from bottom. Fasten with brads. 

These two pieces (C?) serve to keep the back from 
spreading away from front and make the rest strong 
enough to support quite a heavy book. 

This is really a very simple thing to make, for the 
lines are all straight, and if you are careful in cutting, 
fitting and joining, you will feel paid for the trouble. 



X. — BOOK-REST. (Continued.) 



Y 



OU now 



TO 



have the 
book-rest all 
put together 
ready for finish- 
ing. The first thing now to do is to sandpaper 
it. For this you must buy some (o) or (oo) 
sandpaper, and go over the whole thing, being 
careful not to round the corners. You can ac- 
complish this by stretching a piece of sand- 
paper over one of the little bits that remained 
after cutting : this will make a flat, firm surface, 
and will not be so liable to round the edges as if 
stretched over your thumb. 

Before staining, you must make the brass springs 
to hold the leaves back. 

Cut six and one half inches of your spring wire, 
79 



J 



80 a boy's worksho. 

(which should be about one sixteenth of an inch in 
diameter.) At a point five eighths o' an inch from 
end, bend the wire into a right angle ; two and one 
fourth inches from that point give the wire a turn 
round a small nail, or piece of telegraph wire (you 
cannot turn it evenly with your fingers alone) ; this 
is to give the wire a spring, and will enable you to lift 
the end of the wire on to the leaves of the book. 
Now turn the end of the wire in so as to make 
a rounded end. It will then look like^. i. 

Make another spring exactly like this one: then 
cut off a piece five and one half inches long, bend to 
a right angle at a point five eighths of an inch from 
end. Then at a point two inches from angle, give 
the wire a turn as in the other set, and turn the end 
in. Make a second one like this of the remaining 
piece of wire. 

To fasten these springs on to the rest, you must 
bore a hole one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter 
through the sides of the two end uprights, at a point 
just below the end of piece D. Insert the five 
eighth inch ends of the larger set of springs into 
these holes, from the outside. You will find that you 



BOOK-REST. 8 1 

can lay the springs back when not in use, and that 
you can turn them out and lift the ends over the 
edges of your book, so as to keep the pages down 
when you do need to use them. 

The smaller set can be fastened in the same way 
under lower B or under G if you prefer, at a point 
near the lower ends of A A. 

If you are going to stain the book-rest, it is better 
to do it before fastening in the springs. 

I think ebony stain goes best, and as you can 
make it yourself, it would perhaps be cheaper. 

First you must get some logwood chips (about a 
teacupful) ; after boiling them in a pint of water for 
an hour or so, apply with an old brush (not the chips, 
but the decoction you have made by boiling the chips !). 
You can put on two or three coats of this, letting 
it dry each time. 

The next part will perhaps be the hardest. Get 
some iron rust or old iron filings, put these in strong 
vinegar or acetic acid and let it stand a day or two ; 
if by this time the liquid is not of a reddish-black 
color, add more iron rust. 

After the two or three coats of logwood, your wood 



82 a boy's workshop. 

will be of a dark yellow color, but this will immedi- 
ately turn to a fine black when you apply the iron. 
Only one coat of this is needful, because it does not 
soak in. You might try the logwood and the iron on 
a small bit of wood first, and then you will see if 
the solution of iron is strong enough for a good 
black. 

When the book-rest is perfectly dry, rub on some 
thin shellac with a soft cloth : this will make the dull 
finish now considered so desirable. 

This book-rest is very convenient to use round the 
house at home, and is, as you have seen, very easy 
to make : but it as an awkward thing to pack away in 
a trunk if you are going into the country, for instance, 
or are travelling. 

You may like to make another, if you have been 
successful with this one, and this time you can make 
it with hinges, so as to fold up compactly, by making 
the following alterations : 

The front will be the same and the back also, with 
the exception of the uprights E £, being hinged in- 
stead of screwed on to upper B. 

The two Gs must have a one fourth inch hole bored 



BOOK-REST. 



83 



one fourth of an inch from the back end, and a corre 
sponding one bored through E about an inch from 
the bottom ; these holes are for 
pins, on which the G's may turn. 
Instead of the six-inch C 
which joins the two G's at a 
point one and one half inches 
from outer end, there should be 
two pieces seven inches long 
fastened with brads, at points 
respectively three inches and six 
and one half inches from outer 
ends of G. The piece six and 
one half inches from end ca?i be 
left out — though it looks neater with it — but 
the back will shut closer without it. 

Now put the peg through the G's and into the 
E's. 

Draw the back of the book-rest from the front, put 
ends of G's through the spaces bounded by pieces 
A, B and Z>, and you will find that the G's rest 
in the corners made by A and B. 

When you want to shut up the book-rest, you 




84 a boy's workshop. 

must draw the G's out, and turn them away from 
front on to the back of the E>s, and then shut the 
£'s up on to the A's as in figure. 

I don't think this quite as pretty as the fixed 
book-rest, and there are of course other ways of 
changing the original plan which would be more 
ornamental ; but this is very easy and will answer 
the purpose. You will find it good fun and good 
practice to experiment on changes in any of the 
designs given, after you have mastered the simple 
forms and the plain directions given in these papers. 



XI.— A BED TABLE. 

r I ^HE accompanying figure shows you a very use- 

"*• ful but rather peculiar piece of furniture quite 
simple to make ; if you are ever ill in bed yourself or 
any one in the family is obliged to lie in bed and 
have meals brought to them, I think you will say it is 
a handy thing to have instead of a waiter that joggles 
and tips on one's lap in the bed. instead of even a 
table at the side of the bed that compels one to 
twist round uncomfortably in order to reach. 

It explains itself, almost ; but a few directions and 
dimensions will help you. 

As you can see, it is a tray with legs to set over the 
lap in bed, with a rim to keep things from sliding off, 
and is light enough to be carried by the side handles , 
a tempting breakfast for the invalid can be arranged 
neatly upon it instead of a waiter. 

It can be made of any kind of wood, but black 
85 



86 



A boy's workshop. 



walnut is as pretty as any and enough c?n be bought 
for it, for about fifty cents. 

You will need two boards, each two feet long ; one 
should be one foot wide and one half inch thick, 




BED TABLE. 

the other one and a half foot wide and one half inch 
thick. 

Take the first one; plane nicely, being careful to 
have the ends and edges square. Set this aside for 
the top of tray. 

Plain one edge of second piece (the one and One 
half feet wide); with splitting saw cut off strips twenty- 
four inches long by four inches wide : square 



A BED TABLE. 87 

ends and plane edges of piece left. Measure one 
foot from end, square and cut off. You will have two 
pieces alike for the ends or legs, and one strip two 
feet long, four inches wide, for back. 

Round off one edge of top (the piece two feet long 
by one foot wide) with small plane, and sandpaper 
smooth. Take two side pieces; find points nine 
inches from bottom and respectively four and eight 
inches from side of leg; bore holes with largest bits, 
split out piece between, enlarge and smooth with 
gouge or knife to fit the hand. These are to slip the 
fingers through to hold the tray. 

Draw a line parallel with, and ten inches from, bot- 
tom of legs and fasten one leg on either end of the 
two foot by one foot piece, using three one inch 
screws for each leg. 

Fit the back piece neatly on to square edge of top 
and fasten with four screws ; put a screw on upper 
corner of each of the sides, through into end of back 
to make it steadier. 

If the corners of the sides are rounded as in picture, 
it will look a little better. 

You can make this bed table even more useful by 



88 A boy's workshop. 

attaching a simple book rest which will be a great 
comfort to an invalid who is able to read yet finds it 
fatiguing to hold a book. 

Cut two pieces one quarter inch thick, one wide and 
seven inches long, and one piece nine inches long ; 
one half inch from bottom of the two seven inch 
pieces, bore holes large enough for seven-eighths 
inch screws to play in. 

One half from ends of nine inch piece, make some 
smaller holes, and also two holes one inch from top of 
back (on inside) and eight inches apart. 

Screw ends of seven inch pieces into these holes 
and the nine inch piece into the other ends of the 
seven inch pieces; of course the screws must play 
easily. When not in use the rack will fold over and 
lie inside the back as shown by dotted lines. 

To keep the book from slipping forward insert 
two movable pegs about three and a half inches 
apart in front of middle of back. 



XII. — CABINET. 

T HAVE often been asked to describe a " Cabinet 
-*• for Specimens," such as I made for minerals. 
It would be equally good for shells, eggs, coins, or 
even for a bookcase. The shelves hold the specimens 
protected from dust with glass doors, and from med- 
dling fingers with a lock and key. The cupboard (or 
drawer if preferable) below holds duplicates useful in 
making exchanges, and the needful tools for the spe- 
cialty which interests you. 

The cabinet of course can be made of black walnut 
or any other hard wood, but for lightness as well as 
cheapness I used pine (stained) and put in a back of 
dark-brown cambric instead of wood, the cambric 
costing fifteen or twenty cents, where the wood would 
cost nearly a dollar and a half. 

I can't give you close estimates about lumber 
either as to price or lengths, because at different mills 
89 



90 A BOY S WORKSHOP. 

boards vary greatly in dimensions, and values at the 
West or in Maine are unlike those in cities. I will 
therefore describe my own, feeling sure that by this 
time if you have made all the other articles in the 
series you can alter the pattern I give you, or follow 
it accurately, according to the purpose you have in 
view. 

My cabinet fits easily in an alcove six feet, six 
inches high, and four feet, six inches wide ; and is 
large enough to hold an interesting collection. For 
convenience in cutting, the seven boards I used were 
selected according to the following dimensions : 

A — 12 feet by 12 inches. 
B — 6 feet by io inches. 
C — 8 1-2 feet by 1 2 inches. 
D — 12 feet by 12 inches. 
H — 4 feet by 13 inches, 
and 2 boards for shelves 8 feet long by 1 foot wide. 

If possible, get three-fourths-inch board, as it is 
both lighter and cheaper, but inch-board is often 
easier to get and my measurements are for that. 
Get it all as clear as possible. 

Besides the boards you will need two pieces of 



CABINET. 



9 1 



two-inch moulding six feet long, and two pieces 
of three-fourths-inch about eleven feet long, to 
hold the glass in the doors, and three pair of hinges ; 
also lock and key if 
you desire all to be 
secure. 

Take A, divide in two, 
plane edges and square 
ends for sides. 

Take C, cut two 
boards, each four feet 
two inches long, and 
one foot wide, for top 
and bottom. 




THE CABINET. 



From B cut two pieces that shall be six feet long, 
and four inches (for sides of door casing), then 
from remainder cut strip three and one half feet by 
one inch, to go behind lower moulding for hinges 
oiE. 

From board H (which is four feet by thirteen 
inches) cut out block at each end of one edge, three 
inches long by one wide. 

Nail CC on to top and bottom of AA, taking care 



92 A boy's workshop. 

to put top and bottom ( CC) on and not between in> 
rights AA. 

At point nine inches from lower C, nail board H, 
with the projection facing outward. On each side on 
front nail strips BB. You will find they fit into cuts 
made in H. 

Nail the three and one half feet strip close to 
bottom C between BB. 

From remainder of board B cut piece three and 
one half feet long ; with splitting-saw divide this into 
two boards, one eight inches, one four inches wide. 
Nail the four-inch piece directly under C, between the 
BB. This finishes the front for the doors. 

Now for the mouldings : from one of the two-inch 
strips cut piece four feet, four inches long ; cut ends 
at angle of forty-five degrees ; cut two pieces one foot 
three inches long : have right-hand end of one and 
left-hand end of other cut at angles of forty-five de- 
grees, i. e., one half of a right angle. Cut a second 
similar set of mouldings, nailing one set to top, the 
other to bottom of cabinet. 

The piece three and one half feet by eight inches 
is a kind of door, which is hinged to the strip behind 



CABINET. 93 

the moulding at the bottom. In my cabinet I have it 
for a cupboard, as I said before, but you can put in a 
drawer in its place if you prefer. 

For the doors, cut from Zf four pieces four feet, ten 
inches long by three inches wide, and four pieces one 
foot, nine inches long by three inches wide. 

The best way of putting this together is of course 
to mortise it. To do this, draw lines at each end of 
one of the long pieces on the edge one fourth inch 
from each side ; then draw lines across the edge at 
points three fourths and two and one fourth inches 
from end. 

This rectangle must now be cut out. Bore three one 
half inch holes one and one half inches deep : then 
with chisel split out the remaining wood and smooth 
as nicely as possible. Repeat this on all the long 
pieces. 

To make the tenons or tongues which fit the mor- 
tises, measure one and one fourth inches from ends 
of short sticks, and with try-square draw line all 
round the stick. On sides of stick saw in one fourth 
inch deep ; on edges saw three fourths inch deep. 
Then, parallel to sides, draw lines one fourth inch 



94 a boy's workshop. 

from sides of stick on the end, and two more lines 
three fourths of inch from and parallel with edges of 
stick. Place edge of chisel just outside of lines and 
chip off the little blocks, gradually shaving the tenons 
down to the lines. 

If this is nicely done, the tenons will fit into the 
mortises so that the side edges and ends of the four 
long sticks will fit snugly on to the short ones. Put 
a peg through long and short pieces at the tenons to 
keep them from coming apart. 

This can be done in another way that is also some- 
what easier, by cutting from the sides at the ends of 
the pieces squares three inches by three inches by 
one half inch and screwing together. 

If you have only one light of glass to each door, 
there will be no need of a cross-piece, p-. 
so you will simply have to put the mould- l\ II ^ 
ing round on the inside of the door 

° TENON AND 

frames. If you have smaller panes, you mortise. 
will need the crossbars. 

For the four shelves you will require you must cut 
the two eight-foot boards into four, and make cleats 
to support them. These are merely narrow strips 



CABINET. 



95 



of wood nailed on inside of HH (at the height de- 
sired) on which the ends of the shelves rest. The 
staining is done by the rule given in a former 
paper, and the hinges and lock are set as in the tool 
cabinet. 

About four yards of dark cambric tacked on the 
back will finish a neat, simple, but serviceable cabinet 
like the illustration. 



XIII. — A BOY'S "CATCHALL." 

r I ^HERE is no better way for a boy to spend his 
■*■ evenings, half-holidays, and vacations, than 
in making some useful and pretty articles of furniture 
for his own room, providing he has an aptitude foi 
such work, and the mechanical ingenuity and natural 
patience to do it with neatness and accuracy. Yet a 
boy should not — if he takes pleasure in such work — 
become discouraged if his first attempts are not 
wholly attended by success, as no success comes 
>v\thout perseverance ; and perseverance, if the love 
tor the work be not wanting, will inevitably bring 
its own reward. 

The average boy is not usually blessed with over- 
much room in which to bestow his many treasures — 
his bats, balls and marbles, his collection of butter- 
flies and bugs, relics of many a pleasant tramp through 

field and wood, and last, but far from least important, 
96 



A BOY'S " CATCHALL." 



97 



the treasured books of tale and adventure, so dear to 
the heart of a genuine boy ; therefore the little case 
or cabinet of the illustration has been contrived, for 



w*pg* 



fcUJ»«W, ^ 




SKETCH NO. 



his own making, as a resting-place for all these and 

more, and to prove the happy truth of the old adage, 

"A place for everything, and everything in its place." 

It may be constructed of nicely-selected pine, for 



98 A boy's workshop. 

this is easily obtained, is cheap, and any little mistake 
will not entail too much expense if the work has to 
be done again, and also it is easily worked, and 
takes a beautiful golden color when "filled," and 
finished with shellac. Pains must be taken not to 
mar the wood with tool-marks. To make a nice piece 
of work, you will not use any nails, but put the case 
together with dowels, screws, and glue. 

Now look over the drawings together. Sketch No. 
1 shows the completed case as it should look when 
finished and in place. The first section, A, ( Sketch 
No. 2) is a fair-sized box with lifting cover, and a shelf 
beneath. This will be found handy for many odds 
and ends of boyish treasures too cumbersome to 
be stored away in drawers and boxes. Section B 
contains the specimen, or butterfly case, with a row 
of small drawers below, these drawers being handy 
receptacles for marbles, tops, twine, or like odds and 
ends that make a troublesome litter when thrown 
together in a large drawer. Two large drawers below 
these, and the shelf, will find their uses, without doubt. 
Section C has a couple of shelves for books, with 
storage room for bats, hockey sticks, etc., below ; and 



a boy's "catchall.' 



99 



in one corner is a small box large enough to hold 
two or three balls; outside of this, as the other plans 
will show, is a receptacle for a foot-ball, made of 
bent wire. This, if not a desirable addition, may be 
left off. 

Having looked our case over in a general way, let 
us now go into the details of construction and finish. 
In Sketch No. 2 will be found all the general measure- 
ments. The figuring and lettering on the Detail 
Sketch all refer to this drawing. We will first get 
out the stock for the side-pieces of the various sec- 
tions, four in number, and two of them — those be- 
longing to Section B — of exactly the same size and 
shape. These should be of one and one fourth inch 
stock, and of the dimensions given in Detail Sketch 
No. 3. Mark out carefully the simple outline indi- 
cated for each piece, using a piece of charcoal, so the 
line may be easily wiped out and corrected if unsatis- 
factory. Go over the corrected outline with a soft 
pencil to preserve them, and then saw them out. 
This must be done with care, to keep the edges even 
and true, using either a draw tool or small saw on 
the fjiner .outlines. 



fOO 



A BOY S WORKSHOP. 



The half-trefoil on side of Section A at the bottom 
should be drawn with a compass, or scribing tool, 
and cut with a hand scroll-saw ; and the simple pat- 




SKETCH NO. 2. 



tern on the sides should first be marked out with a 
compass, the larger hole carefully cut out with a sharp 
tool to the depth of one fourth inch. The smaller 
holes, surrounding it, bore out to about the same 
depth with a small auger-bit. The straight line dec- 
oration on sides of Sections B and C are first neatly 
lined with a pencil, and then cut with a sharp tool, 
one fourth inch wide, and about as deep. The cover 



A BOYS "CATCHALL." IOI 

of Section A should be of seven eighths inch stock, 
and should project fully an inch over the side and 
front. The back piece, on which the hinges are fas- 
tened, should be two and one half inches wide. 
This will allow ample room for the back board, and 
give to the cover, when open, sufficient slant to lean 
easily against the wall. This piece should be well 
glued and doweled into place, and two neat brass 
hinges set in, to hold the cover. The bottom of box 
and bottom shelf of this same section are of same 
thickness as top, firmly doweled and glued into place. 
The front panel is of same thickness, and cut to fit 
exactly into place, doweled and glued. The small 
jig-saw patterns at bottom of Sketches No. 8, 9, 10, 
are cut from one half inch stock, and glued on firmly. 
Section A is now ready to attach to the side piece 
of Section B. This must be neatly and firmly done 
with dowels and glue. 

In ^Section B first get out the top, centre and bot- 
tom shelves, as well as the narrow strip division for 
the drawers ; these last need not run back more 
than three inches, excepting for the row of small 
drawers. This division should run entirely from front 



102 



A boy's WORKSHOP. 



to back, the same as the shelves. The thickness of 
all the shelving is the same throughout. Having 



<_ m\gi-» 









3$etou\lii- 






TJ- T 



3«> 




T5K*fr? 




f 


t 


J 

JO 




i 


«?"■***=* 


Sf 


as 5~a 
1/ ^ 



^iSc 






SKETCH NO. 



framed together our sides with the centre and bot- 
tom shelves, and drawer partitions, next place the two 
narrow uprights, on which the doors are to be hung, 



A BOYS "CATCHALL. IO3 

in position. These are one half inch wide and firmly 
doweled and glued into sides ; the doors are hung 
with simple brass hinges and made to lap one over the 
other on one fourth inch rebate, and shutting against 
an upright post about three fourths inch square. 
Glue a strip one inch wide and one half inch thick 
around the sides and back piece, for the top to rest 
upon and be fastened to, by one fourth inch dowels, 
and glued ; this strip should, for further security, be 
fastened by a number of small screws. Space will not 
allow the details of construction of drawers ; but if 
the lad will look at any well-made drawer, he will easily 
find out for himself. 

We have already got out the side for the book 
shelves and bat holder, Section C, and have only to 
dowel and glue shelves firmly into place, put the 
back boards in position, having got them out the size 
and shape shown by Sketches 7 and 8. 

Now our case is well framed together and it only re- 
mains for us to finish various small details. After 
fitting a one fourth inch shelf into the specimen case 
midway, the next move is to line the whole of the 
specimen case and the two long drawers beneath 



104 A boy's workshop. 

with thin, flat pieces of cork about one eighth inch in 
thickness. First apply to the whole surface to be 
covered, a thin coating of hot glue, fitting in the 
piece of cork while the glue is hot ; rub well into 
place, and apply an even pressure, to be left until 
the glue is thoroughly " set ; " when this is done 
cover all the cork with nice white paper, applied with 
flour paste. Frame up the door as shown in Sketch 
No. 12, of one half inch stock, setting the glass in from 
the front into a narrow rebate. Then glue a narrow 
moulding on the outside to prevent the glass from 
falling out. Hang the door with brass hinges and 
fit a small lock into place ; then dowel neatly into 
place the under brackets, Nos. 9, 10, 11, in their 
respective positions, place pretty brass pulls on all 
the drawers, and the case is nearly ready for finishing. 
In the book case Section 6, the simplest way of ar- 
ranging the shelves is to bore a row of one fourth inch 
holes front and back and at both sides, and fit little 
pegs into these for two shelves to rest on. These 
may be raised or lowered by changing the positions 
of the pegs. Make a little box as shown of one fourth 
inch stock, fasten this neatly with small screws into 



A BOYS "CATCHALL." 105 

the /eft-hand upper corner of the bat holder under 
the lower shelf ; this is to hold the base and hockey 
balls. The back of the case may be made of narrow 
strips of one fourth inch sheathing, held in by screws. 

Fill the woodwork thoroughly with a good filler ; 
Wheeler's is good. After it is wholly dry, go over the 
case with a good coat of white shellac, and when 
dry, rub it down carefully with powdered pummice 
stone, oil and emery cloth. A second coat of shel- 
lac carefully rubbed down, will result in a rich golden 
brown hue, that will improve with age. This case, 
when complete, will cover a small space of four feet 
nine inches by three feet three inches. 

In buying stock, select the best pine for all portions 
that will show. Get the stock well planed and smooth 
it down. 

If made by a carpenter, twenty-five dollars would be 
the smallest payable price for a good job, so that the 
price named is not at all excessive for a really good 
thing. 

This case being somewhat elaborate is intended 
both in design and instructions here given, for those 
boys who have a fair knowledge of construction, and 



106 A boy's workshop. 

some ideas as to the best way to set about it ; and it 
must be borne in mind although pine is soft and easily 
worked, it is also easily soiled and injured by tool 
marks more readily than the harder woods. 

The general schedule of material and cost given 
below will be found useful in buying. 

SCHEDULE OF COSTS, ETC. 

50feet.7^inchpien,| at6cperf00t> _ . . ^ 

Sawing, if done at a mill, about 1.50 

Finishing and filling the wood in four coats, about 

1 quart of shellac, etc., 1.50 

Hardware, locks, hinges, drawers, pulls, etc., etc., 1.50 

Glass for doors, .50 

Cork, paper, glue, etc., about 1.50 

Total, $11.00 



XIV. — HOW TO BUILD A PORTABLE 
WOODEN TENT. 

\ A /OODEN tents such as I am about to describe, 
are in use by the contractors who are build- 
ing the western extensions of the Denver and Rio 
Grande Railway in Colorado. There are no towns 
there ahead of the railway, and it is necessary to pro- 
vide sleeping-quarters, provisions and eating-houses, 
for the engineers and road-makers. It is therefore 
needful to have a style of building which can be 
put up and taken down easily, and, above all, which 
shall be capable of transportation over the frightful 
mountain roads. The result, it seems to me, might be 
useful to bevies of boys, to schoolmasters and pupils, 
and to families who camp out every summer for 
some considerable time, and really need to take to 
the woods a house somewhat better than a cloth tent, 
where they can live in warmth and comfort, and 
which shall be a cosey headquarters for storing 



no a boy's workshop. 

supplies, and to which they may return. My 
object now is in these papers to instruct our 
young home carpenters how during their winter 
leisure to get one of these comfortable wooden tents 
in complete readiness for summer transportation. It 
can be done very cheaply ; if you can improve on it, 
so much the better. For my part, I have never seen 
or heard of the like anywhere else, though I believe 
that circus sideshows sometimes have a far more 
cumbersome arrangement answering the same purpose. 

Boys might club together, not only to own such a 
portable house in common, but to build it — a jolly 
way of spending Saturdays in some great wagon-house 
or tool-chamber where there is a big workbench and 
a good tool-chest. 

This movable house consists wholly of wood except 
the roof, which is canvas, and the floor, which is dirt, 
unless you choose to plank it. It may be made of 
any size you see fit, it only being necessary that all 
the parts are adjusted to the scale decided upon. 
The dimensions I give, however, are measured upon 
a plan twelve feet square, because that happened to 
be the actual size of the one nearest to me. The 



A PORTABLE WOODEN TENT. m 

railway men generally join from two to half a dozen 
of these together, end to end, making a long and 
commodious building. A half-dozen congenial fami- 
lies could do the same, insuring endless good times 
in the forest solitudes. One twelve-foot length is 
then known as a "section." If you would rather 
have an oblong figure, make your ends shorter and 
reduce the length of your rafters ; or, if you don't 
like the pretty low pitch of the roof which my meas- 
urements imply, lengthen your uprights and rafters to 
suit your own ideas of the right angle. 
Now for my details : 

The walls of your tent-house, six feet in height, are 
to be made of inch-thick matched flooring twelve feet 
long. They should be No. i pine, best quality. 
Fasten these firmly together, to the width of six feet, 
by three dressed cleats, six inches wide, one at each 
end and one in the middle, and do this on both sides. 
Make three of these platforms, or walls, which will 
furnish three sides of your house. For the fourth 
side make a similar platform nine feet in length, fill- 
ing out the remaining three feet with a door. 

This door swings out, and the hinges should be 



112 



A boy's WORKSHOP. 



very strong, preferably of the kind used on barn doors, 

so that it can be 
lifted off its hang- 
ing with ease, and 
so that the long 
shaft of the hinge 
will act as a sup- 
port to prevent un- 
due sagging. An 
arrangement must 
be made to lock 




Bo. 14* 



this door. It can easily be secured 
on the inside by a bolt, and out- 
wardly by hasp and padlock. 

There remain, now, the peaks or 
gables at the ends, to be provided 
for. Many of the railway men get 
their roof canvas sufficiently large 
to come down and cover this, but 
I think a better plan would be to 
make two triangular platforms of 
boards, fitted to your peak, cleating them together 
just like the lower walls. Then place about four 





A PORTABLE WOODEN TENT. 113 

flat staples in the outside of your end walls, and let 
iron hasps bolted to the lower edge of your peak 
boards drop into them. This would hold the bottom 
of the peak and the top of the end wall squarely 
together. In addition to this a couple of bolts should 
pass through the upright and be secured by nuts, 
so as easily to be unscrewed. {See fig. 14.) 
There should be no middle cleat on the 
inside of the gable. The general character 
of these walls appears in several of the 
illustrations, but the cleating is shown in 
fig. 1. Screws should be used throughout 
instead of nails. The woodwork remaining 
to be shaped, consists of the uprights, or 
centre-poles at each end, the ridgepole, 
/G -w, rafters and braces. 

The two uprights in my model were 8 feet and 
9 inches in height ; a greater length would add pitch 
to the roof. These uprights should be made of clear, 
firm stuff, 4 inches by 2, and should be thickened at 
their lower ends by adding pieces of similar size, as 
shown \w figures 2 and 4. This upright stands inside of 
the wall, and edge-wise. Into its upper inner 




ii4 



A BOY'S WORKSHOP. 




V 



m 



edge must be set two iron " eyes " having an inner 
diameter of three quarters of an inch. {See Jig. 3). The 
uppermost of these is placed about two inches from 
the top of the stick, and ^=gfl^^5= 
the second six inches below. 
These eyes should pass clear 
through the timber and be held by nuts on 
the other side. Six feet from the bottom of 
the upright, a hooked bolt should be passed 
through the timber, the hook facing outwardly, 
and having enough space between it and the 

wood to allow the wall to come 
between. Its purpose is to 
hold the end wall snugly to 
the upright : therefore it must 
be loose enough so that it can 
be turned up while the wall is 
being put into position, and 
ihen turned down to clamp 
it firmly, as in figure 4. 
Having made both uprights 
alike, you now turn your atten- 
tion to the ridgepole. This ought to be somewhat 




A PORTABLE WOODEN TENT. 115 

heavier than the uprights, two by six scantling being 
none too strong for the strain which the weight of 
your canvas and an occasional gale of wind will put 
upon it. It is twelve feet long, of course, and six 
inches from each end will have an iron pin 18 inches 
in length driven through from its upper side, intended 
to go through the eyes at the top of the uprights. 
This is shown in fig. 5. 

On each side of this ridgepole screw in four stout 
staples or eyes, one at three inches from each 
end, and the others at equal distances between ; to 
these the rafters are to be attached. {See figs. 3 and ^ 
Similar staples must be placed an inch below the up- 
per inside edge of the side walls to contain the irons 
at the lower end of the 
rafters, as in fig. 6 ; of 
course, therefore, it is 
necessary that the sta- 
pies in the walls should 
fall exactly opposite those on the ridgepole. 

The rafters themselves, eight in number, may 
be made of the same sized stuff as the uprights, 
or lighter, if a tough wood like elm or ash is used 




n6 a boy's workshop. 

instead of pine ; and each will be 7 feet and 4 
inches long unless you want a pretty steep roof, 
in which case you must lengthen them somewhat. 
To the underside of the upper end is fastened 
a strong curved hook, which hangs in the staples on 
the ridgepole {Jig. 5) ; while to the lower end is fast- 
ened a pointed iron three inches long, and set at such 
an angle that it will stand vertical in the eye on the 
wall (see Jig. 6 next paper) when the rafter is in 
place. 



XV.— HOW TO BUILD A WOODEN TENT. 

{Continued.) 



r I ''HE braces are intended to serve the same purpose 
"^ as the guy-ropes of the ordinary wall tent, and 
are three in number on each side. They consist of stout 
sticks (two by four inches is a good size ) long enough 
to reach the ground from the top 
of the wall (five and one half feet 
in the present case ) at an angle 
of forty-five degrees. At the 
upper end, underneath, which is 
beveled to stand flat against the 
face of the wall, the brace is 
armed with a strong hook. This 
hook sets into an eye inserted into the top of the 
outside cleat, just as the rafters are hooked to 
the ridgepole. At the lower end, which also is 
beveled off to fit the ground, is fastened a large 
ringbolt. This is on the upper side, so that when 
"7 




1EW6. 



u8 



a boy's workshop. 



the brace is in position, the ring lies flat on the 
ground beyond it, and through it is driven a barbed 
pin of iron. These braces not only hold the wall 
from sagging out, but equally prevent it from 

pulling in, which 
is just as great a 
danger. How 
they are ar- 
ranged is 
seen at a 
glance in 

M 7- 




There is also another brace which goes across from 
the corner of the side wall over the doorway to the 
upright, where it is hooked into an eye placed six feet 
above the ground. This cross-brace forms a lintel 
to the door, and serves to make solid the otherwise 
somewhat shaky end of the right-hand siding. 

Now comes the setting up and roofing; but before 



A PORTABLE WOODEN TENT. 



ug 



Q- 



you can do that you must provide fastenings at the 
corners of your walls. I have reserved this for the 
last, since it is the most difficult bit of mechan> 
ism. 

Go to a blacksmith and have him forge for you 
six pieces of iron of the shape shown in Jig. 8, 
each about an inch and a half 
wide, and an eighth of an inch 
thick; the shafts, or straight 
ends of three of them, should Bb.8. 

measure six inches from the 
point marked a, while the shafts of the others 
should be nine inches in length, the elbow being 

alike in both 
cases. In the 
shaft should be 
punched two 
holes big enough 
^JpES to pass stout bolts 
through ; but in 
both sizes these holes should be within six inches 
from the straight end. Having provided yourself 
with these bent irons, bolt one of the short size upon 




"*""»- Frc. 9 



120 



a boy's workshop. 



each end of the outside of the rear wall of your house 
six inches from the lower border, and in such a way 
that the bent end 

which is to be turned e * B ^=B - ' - ■ '" |1P^CI__^T^ 
upward, shall project Yid.10. 

beyond the end of the wall just enough to leave a 
_ space of a quarter of an inch between 

F ll ^ e ms ^ e °f tne curve an d tne e( ige 
of the cleat to which it is bolted. Draw 
the nuts on your bolts very tight. Now take your 
remaining short one, and put it upon the lower 
corner of your 
front wall, so that 
its lower edge 
shall be just sev- 
en inches from 
the bottom of the 
wall, and with the 
elbow projecting 
as before, but 
turned down. 

You have now left your three longer pieces of iron. 
One of these must be placed on the lower rear end 




Fift.ia. 



A PORTABLE WOODEN TENT. 



12 




of your right-hand side-wall (as you face the door) 
at seven and one half inches above the bottom, and 
with the elbow turned down. The other two go on 
opposite ends of the left-hand wall, that at the 
rear end turned down, and that in front turned 

up, the former seven and 
one half, the latter six 
inches above the bottom 
edge. But all these long 
ones must project three 
and one quarter inches, 
because they must reach 
past the edge of the adjoining wall, as you will see 
when you stand the walls up ; the edge of the rear 
flush with face of the sidings, and lock them 
together, as shown in^. 9. 

Though I have seen the same arrangement at the 
top, yet a better way is as follows : (Figs. 10, 11 and 

12.) 

Have your blacksmith make three flat pieces of 
iron, each six and one half inches in length, having a 
closed loop turned up at the end, which carries a link 
six inches long, as in Jig. 10. Bolt this piece of 



122 



A boy's WORKSHOP. 



iron near the upper corner of each of the end walls— - 
that is, above each of the short hooks, allowing the 
loop in which the link hangs, and no more, to pro- 
ject. Get at the same time three squarely bent hooks 
of round iron (fig. 1 1), with a thread and nut at the long 
end, and the bent-up point no longer than the inner 
diameter of the link, lengthways, so that it will freely 

pass through the 
link. Set these 
hooks in those un- 
provided upper cor- 
ners of your remain- 
ing walls that come 
opposite your links 
when the walls are 
set up, at such a 
distance that when 




F*»< l4f 



the link is bent around the corner it will snugly fit 
over the hooks. In order to do this, however (and you 
can see what I mean by a glance at fig. 12), you must 
set your hooks so loosely that you can turn their points 
backwards. The link is then slipped over, and the 
reversion of the hook to the position shown in fig. 



A PORTABLE WOODEN TENT. 



123 



12 binds the two walls cornering there as securely 
together as the interlocking hooks hold them at the 
bottom. 

You will notice that I have no clamps or link at 
the front end near the door. There is no chance for 
any. Instead we trust for solidity to the outside 

brace, which is specially 
important, and to the 
horizontal brace which 
extends across from the 
top of the wall to the 
forward upright. {See 

fig- J 3-) 

The next thing is 

your canvas. Measure how much you need for 
your roof, and determine how far down your 
walls you want it to extend. If you are going 
to camp in very cold weather, you would do well 
to have it all the way to the ground. It would 
add greatly to the warmth. As a rule, though, you 
will only want it to come well over the top of the 
siding, with some lapping in front and rear to keep 
out driving rains. When it is sewed into a big sheet 




*w.i5. 



124 



A boy's workshop. 



you must attach to it at frequent intervals a short 
stout strap. Opposite these straps {Jig. 15) nail to the 
outside of your walls straps containing big buckles 
{Jig. 14) whereby you can buckle down taut your 
canvas roof. I know of no more secure and conven- 
ient method of holdii 
the tent cover than this 
but I would advise 
you to experi- 
ment 




T.g.16. 

reach and "full" of your cloth before nailing the 
buckles to the wood work. 

Now comes the setting of your tent-house up. 
The first consideration is the position. I can only 
say that it should be level, and where water will not 
drain into it in case of heavy rains. The next thing 
to be decided is, Will you have a floor? If so, 
lay it a few inches larger than your building, set 



A PORTABLE WOODEN TENT. 1 25 

your house on it, and nail down a narrow cleat all 
around inside close to the wall; an upright bolt 
dropping into the floor in the centre of each side, 
will be well also. 

First set up the centre poles and ridgepole, plac- 
ing the latter on top of the former, and sliding the 
iron pins down through the eyes. {Fig. 3.) Then 
place in position the rear wall. The side walls will 
come next, their clamps dropping easily at the corners 
into those of the end wall, and holding them firm 
while you slip the links over their hooks and twist 
them tight. Then set up the braces at the door end, 
and put up the front wall, turning down the tent pin 
on the ridgepole,, to hold it firm, and locking the 
whole structure with the last link. Next, hook on 
the rafters, bolt the triangular gable walls to the upper 
part of the ridgepole, and set your braces at the sides. 
Nothing remains but to draw over your canvas, put 
your door upon its hinges, and hang up your hat. 
You are at home ; a home you have put together at 
leisure hours in your barn or woodshed during the 
winter, have taken to the woods in a lumber-wagon, 
and set up with the help of a single companion ; 



126 a boy's workshop. 

and when you are done with it you will carry it back 
to town and store it away in the woodshed or stable 
again. 

In respect to the cost, I can give no estimates so 
good as in a few moments you can compile for your- 
self. It all depends on the price of materials and 
the cost of blacksmithing in your own neighborhood. 
The weight and breadth of the canvas purchased is 
also to be estimated variously, according to your 
selection, and the expense will be increased according 
to the degree of finishing, painting, and decoration 
put upon the structure. If I should make one for 
myself in New York or New Jersey, I should not an- 
ticipate its costing me more than twenty-five dollars 
ready for setting up ; but this includes no floor and 
no painting. The interior furnishing of cots, cup- 
boards, tables, stoves, et cetera, I presume you will un- 
derstand as well as I. Also that you can contrive to 
put in windows as you want them, and provide a 
means of carrying your stovepipe through a tin ring 
in the canvas roof so as to be safe from ignition. I 
only wish I might help enjoy all the fun you will have ! 



XVI. — HOW TO MAKE A FERNERY. 

A UTUMN is the time to be getting ready for your 
-*■ *• fernery — all you who are off in the country 
( or who live there ), or are just getting back from 
your summer vacation, with a big parcel of ferns and 
things which you collected at the White Mountains, 
or among the Green Mountains, or the Berkshire 
Hills, or at Mount Desert, or in some woods, or by 
some pond, or by the sea, or somewhere, no matter 
where — lovely things were around you wherever you 
went. 

I know what you have been doing : for, have 

I not seen in my summer trips for these twenty years, 

how you young people do ; how it seems as if you 

wanted to carry all the woods home with you ; how, 

hot and tired, but happy, you have been seen coming 

back to the farmhouse or hotel where you boarded, 

with your arms full ; how you put your treasures 

127 



128 a boy's workshop. 

safely away in the coolest, shadiest corner of the back 
piazza, and asked anxiously if they would keep till 
you could get them home ? And when the morning of 
packing up came, what a stir to get them all into the 
smallest possible compass ; for were not the older folks 
of the party all complaining because the boys had 
cut so many cones, and the aesthetic grown-up daugh- 
ters had such bundles of cat-tails and sun-flowers, so 
that the "baggage" was already beyond all bounds 
of reason ! 

If it should happen that you have not secured what 
you would like to stock your fernery with, you can do 
it now : and if anybody should tell you that those 
frail-looking things will not stand the journey home, 
you can answer, on my authority, that they are mis- 
taken. Just get the roots, and you are all right. I 
have not much doubt that there are ferns growing in 
a Western city to-day from some dry-looking roots 
which a lady from New England took out with her, 
and after being a week on her journey, distributed 
among her friends, so that the ferneries all about the 
city were beautiful with them by Christmas time. 

There is a good deal of vitality in roots : their hold 



HOW TO MAKE A FERNERY. 129 

on life is something wonderful. Plant them, and you 
will hear from them, as Doctor Franklin did from a seed 
or two he found in a piece of broom corn, to which, I 
suppose, all the brooms in the United States may be 
traced. 

Therefore, collect, and have patience. The way is 
to tear up a whole mass of the greenery from some 
moist knoll or hummock, moss and all. It will be 
sure to be full of things, gold-thread, bunch-berry, 
partridge-berry, mitre-wort and dew-berry ; and every 
one of them will blossom in a fernery in winter. No 
knowing what will come up out of the moss. Get 
also from the woods the two-leaved Solomon's seal — 
you will know it by the bunch of finely speckled 
berries ; the Indian cucumber root, the rattlesnake 
plantain, lady's slipper, wake robin, chick-weed, win- 
ter-green, princes' pine, pyrola. All these and many 
others will bloom there, and violets. I might make 
a long list of flowers, besides nearly all kinds of 
ferns, and mosses. But it is well to get any and 
every little delicate woods' plant that you like ; roll 
them up in moss, which will keep them damp enough, 
and when you get home, fit up your fernery. 



130 



A BOY*S WORKSHOP. 



But first — in accordance with the principle laid 
down by the famous Mrs. Glass, in her cook-book, who 
says about cooking a hare, " first, get your hare," — 
you will first get your fernery. 

Many persons would have one quickly enough but 
for thinking the expense too great. But it is not at 
all important that you have one of those nice black 
walnut cases with the costly oval or round glass. 
A home-made one is more convenient, and much 
cheaper. 

This, which the artist has drawn from one in use, 
is, as you notice, proportioned like a house with a 
steep roof. The frame is of hard wood — a mere 
sash to hold the glass (for it is really a glass house ), 
so are the bottom or floor, and the base, which is 
about four inches deep. A groove is cut in the sash, 
in which the glass is set firmly ; no putty was used, 
though I should suggest it as being more secure. All 
the corners are dovetailed together and made sure 
by little brads. 

The roof is separate, so as to be lifted off ; and 
when on, is kept fast in place by means of two little 
corks the size of a pipe stem, which are fastened to 



HOW TO MAKE A FERNERY. 



J 3i 



the pieces of wood at the bottom of the roof, and shut 
into holes made for them in the strips on which it is 
set, so that when closed not so much as a crack is to 
be seen. This is eighteen inches long and fourteen 
wide, and from base to top is twenty-four inches. 




A FERNERY. 

The glass sides are about ten by sixteen ; the ends 
ten by twelve ; the sides of the roof are ten by sixteen, 
and the triangular pieces at the ends, ten by ten. 
One could be more elegantly proportioned if the roof 
was not so steep. These figures are given as a guide. 
This is very roomy, especially in height ; but that 



132 a boy's workshop. 

is no disadvantage, because a tall fern can be set 
in the middle and have space to spread off at will, or 
some little hooks can be screwed into the ridge-pole 
(likening it to a house), and tiny hanging things sus- 
pended from them. 

The glass is of the common window-pane kind, 
and was about eleven cents a pane ; eight panes were 
required, and the man who had them for sale cut 
them to fit the sash. The wood was maple, and was 
hunted out of the odds and ends in the loft of the 
wood-house. Any thoroughly seasoned wood, even 
pine, is suitable, and the cost is not worth mentioning. 
The frame should be neatly finished and joined, 
should be strong and firm on account of the weight 
after the earth and plants are in ; and before the 
glass is cut, should be stained, or oiled, or painted, 
outside and in. A pretty stain is made by stirring a 
tablespoonful of burnt umber into a cup of vinegar, 
more or less, according to whether you wish the 
color to be lighter or darker. Stir vigorously and 
put it on with a little swab : it will dry in the course 
of a few hours, and then can be varnished if you like. 
Five cents' worth of umber is enough to do your 



HOW TO MAKE A FERNERY. 133 

fernery, with plenty left for three or four brackets 
besides, 

All the work should be faithfully done, for you 
want no shrinking or gaping or warping afterwards. 
You must remember that it is to be subjected to 
dampness within and dryness without. Once done 
well, your fernery will last for years, and you can 
have something beautiful in it from January till Jan- 
uary comes again, a perpetual delight to all who see 
it ; and costing so little. 

Now, an important part remains — the movable 
zinc tray, which must just fill the wooden bottom, 
and be of the same height, but not fit so closely that 
you cannot take it out when necessary. Ours cost 
fifty cents, but may be made for less ; any tin-man 
will make it. 

There you have the figures. You can proportion 
one as you like, but this is large enough unless you 
wish to set little flower pots in ; but a larger one 
would be heavy to move about, and instead of a fernery 
one would need a Wardian case. 

Now, for the fitting up. Last October we removed 
the roof and the tray and washed the glass, prepar- 



134 a boy's workshop. 

atory to having everything fresh and clean for the 
coming winter. The old contents were emptied, and 
we began anew. The first thing was to place a layer 
of broken brick, and small pebbles and gravel, on the 
bottom of the tray for drainage, perhaps an inch and 
a half deep, over which we scattered bits of charcoal 
to keep all pure. We had previously collected a great 
store of things from the woods with which to stock it, 
taking up a whole mat of moss with all that therein 
grew, and everything with a little of the woods' mould 
on the roots ; also we had a clump of pitcher plants 
from a cranberry meadow, and some rattle-snake 
plantain. Altogether for our fourteen by eighteen 
accommodations, I should judge that we had about a 
wheel-barrow load of material to select from ; but we 
were in the country then. 

It is always desirable to use the rich, mellow leaf 
mould that is found in the woods. You can easily 
take up your plants with enough of it clinging about 
them ; and it is so loose and light it will not add 
materially to the bulk or weight. Not much is needed 
for the fernery ; two or three inches of it only above 
the bed of drainage, mixed with a little sand. In the 



HOW TO MAKE A FERNERY. 135 

cities it can be obtained from greenhouses. Many 
of the plants would flourish if only moss was put in. 

In ours we placed a good layer of such soil ; and the 
first plant we set out was a tall, beautiful fern which 
reached nearly to the roof, for we wanted it to look 
pretty all at once without waiting for things to grow. 
Then a pitcher-plant, purple polygala, creeping snow- 
berry, lots of partridge-berry, with the scarlet berries 
on, and nearly all of the wild things I have named. 
Then we went into the garden and dug up lilies-of- 
the-valley that we were sure were going to bloom, 
which is indicated by the bluntness and plumpness 
of the crown just above ground (the leaves were 
gone), also roots of pansy and fragrant single violet. 
These we put into the corners where they would have 
the most light. We packed the tray full, too full, 
perhaps, not forgetting roots of maiden-hair fern. 
We had not much faith in trailing arbutus, though we 
set out a root or two ; our hopes for that sweet flower 
we based on the clusters of buds we gathered from 
the woods, and these we put in a small tumbler of 
water and set among the greenery. 

Then we gave our little garden under glass a 



136 a boy's workshop. 

thorough sprinkling, put the roof on, and set it in 
the light. Occasionally we raised it and admitted 
the air for a short time, but it does not answer to do 
this often. It must be kept covered, watered perhaps 
once a month, kept in the light and warmth. 

The result to us was beyond our highest anticipa- 
tions. Though the pansies did nothing but grow tall 
and rank, there was always a violet to give a friend — a 
delectable violet which made the room fragrant when 
it was taken out ; there were " many flowers " week 
after week ; mitre-wort bloomed, princes' pine, gold- 
thread, and other little things ; and while snow yet 
lay on the ground, the lilies-of-the-valley blossomed. 
Greatest success of all, and to our utter amazement, 
the pitcher-plant flowered, maiden-hair thrived, the 
great fern spread off till its tips touched the glass, the 
rattle-snake plantain sent up a spire of bloom, and 
everything was beautiful. 

I have told you now the method, the expense, 
and how simple a thing it is to fit up a fernery. 
Another winter we shall put in tulip bulbs and 
some other garden plants there may be room for. 
Things will bear packing quite closely if you are 



HOW TO MAKE A FERNERY. 137 

careful to keep those that like the shade in the back- 
ground, and let the others have the best chance 
for the light. Occasionally the fernery needs turn- 
ing so the sun can reach all ; otherwise it requires 
but little care. 



XVII. — A BOY'S RAILWAY AND TRAIN. 

IN a certain old-fashioned house that I visit, a 
large attic is set apart as a playroom for the 
boys, in which to keep their tools, their jig-saw, and 
their treasures of all sorts, dear to the hearts of young 
people. 

All around the edge of this room runs a small 
railway with curves and switches complete, with 
bridges and tunnels, and an elegant station, made of 
a deserted dog house, and painted in the newest 
style. 

Over this track, propelled by boy-power, runs 
many times a day, a train of cigar-box cars, engine 
and tender, baggage and passenger cars, all in order. 
And everything about it, from the ties to the latest 
parlor car, was made by two boys under fourteen 
years of age, at a very small cost. 

These boys are no wiser or more skilful than 
138 



a boy's railway and train. 139 

other boys, and there is nothing about it hard to 
make. I thought many of you young readers of 
mine would like to copy it, and so I have 
studied the thing, taken my instructions from the 
builder himself, and here it is, so plainly told that 
<jl no ordinary boy of twelve need make a 

mistake if he follows directions exactly, 
— - 2- although to make it perfectly clear, I 



have to use a good many words which 
make it look hard. To begin with the track : first, 
come 

THE TIES. 

To make ties for a single track, take a board one 
inch thick. Saw from the end a piece five inches 
long, and split it with a chisel into ties an inch square. 
The number you will need depends, of course, upon 
the length of your road. Having these ready, the 
next thing is the 

rails. 
Buy at a tinner's sheets of tin which come fourteen 



T40 A BOY S WORKSHOP. 

by twenty inches in size, though any other size may 
be used. If convenient, have the tinner cut each 
sheet into eleven strips twenty feet long and about 
one and a quarter wide. You can, however, cut them 
yourself, with a pair of old shears, first measuring 
carefully, and ruling the sheet off. 

Along one side of each strip of tin, near the edge, 
punch nail holes; one close to each end, and four 
between, making thus six holes about four inches 
apart. 

To bend the rail to shape, take a ruler and scratch 
a line the whole length one quarter of an inch from 
the edge which has no holes. Lay this edge on a 
straight board, with the mark exactly on the edge of 
the board, so that the quarter of an inch sticks out 
beyond the board. Then tack the tin with two or 
three tacks, to keep it from slipping, while you take a 
hammer and pound the tin down over the edge till it 
is bent at a right angle to the rest. Then take out 
your tacks, and laying the tin on the board, pound 
this turned-up edge over till nearly flat. This makes 
the top of your rail, as you see in fig. i (which shows 
the end of a rail) at a. 



A BOYS RAILWAY AND TRAIN. 1 41 

To make the bend c {fig. i) draw a line the whole 
length half an inch from the edge where the holes 
are. Again tack the tin to the board, with the half- 
inch sticking out beyond, and pound this edge over 
into a right angle. This completes your rail, the holes 
being along the edge marked b in the figure. 

TO LAY THE TRACK. 

Place a number of ties side by side, and with a 
ruler and pencil draw two lines across them, three 
and a half inches apart, having about three quarters 
of an inch beyond the lines at each end. These 
marks are to guide you in laying the track straight. 
When you have thus prepared a number of ties and 
rails, fasten them together by nailing, with small-sized 
carpet tacks, through each punched hole, on to a tie, 
being careful that the end of each rail reaches no 
more than half over its tie, so that the next rail may 
join on right {fig. 2). The tacked edges of the two 
rails turn towards each other on the inside of the 
track, and thus do not show when a train is on, and 
the angle c rests exactly on the line drawn on the tie. 



142 A BOYS WORKSHOP. 

Go on in this way till your rails are all used, or you 
come to a curve. 

TO MAKE A CURVE. 

Take a cold chisel, or an old common chisel, and 
one of your finished rails. On the flat side (from 
b to c, \i\ftg. i)cut slits reaching from b to c, and half 
an inch apart. Lay a row of ties in the curve you 
wish to make, and bend the rail to fit them. The slits 
will enable you to bend them nicely, on one side 
by gaping apart, and on the other by slipping over. 

If you want a guard rail to keep your train from 
running off at this point, lay an extra rail fastened in 
the same way inside of each rail on the curve. 

TO MAKE A SWITCH. 

Select a point where two rails join, for a switch, 
and take one length of rail for the purpose. This 
length, which includes both rails, of course, is to be 
movable, and so must slide over the common ties, 
and not be fastened to them. To keep them in place 



A boy's RAILWAY AND TRAIN. 143 

they must be tacked to special ties, much thinner, 
and coming between the regular ties that they slide 
over. Having prepared this length, put a tack, 
smaller than the hole you have punched, through 
the end hole at a (fig. 4), so that the switch will 
move easily on it. 

At b. {fig. 3.), where your two tracks come to- 
gether, you must put pegs (b. b.) to keep the switch 
- from moving too far either way, 

\\ and throwing your train off. 

h 



[J] Also, from this point, the ties 



must be long enough to hold 
FIG - 2 ' the side track till it is clear of 

the regular track (Jig. 3). The curve of this side 
track is made, of course, by the directions for mak- 
ing a curve. The last special tie at c (fig. 3) 
must run out far enough to take a hold of, to 
move the switch. 

TO MAKE A FROG. 

At the point where the rails cross (d,fig. 3.) you 
will need a frog, to allow your train to go smoothly 



144 



A BOY S WORKSHOP. 



over. To make this, you 
cut your side rails square 
off at d y and begin it 
again on the inside of the 
rail, leaving a space of a 
quarter of an inch open 
to let the flange of your 
car wheels pass through. 

Also, you must cut a 
notch in your regular 
track at the same point, 
so that the wheels on 
trains switching off may 
go through {fig. 4). 

Now your track is 
ready, you may begin on 
the train ; and first the 
trucks. 




fig. 3. 



TO MAKE THE TRUCKS. 



For wheels you need a lot of rather large spools 
with quite thick shanks, unless you can afford to 
have brass or wooden ones turned for you. The best 



A BOY S RAILWAY AND TRAIN. 1 45 

spools come in the shops of New York, with French 
sewing cotton, and next best are those which hold 
the knitting silk, so much used nowadays by 
ladies. 

Ask your mother and sisters, and all your fancy- 
work loving friends, to save their spools for 
you, and it will not be long before you have 
enough. 

Saw each spool into three pieces, as at a, a {fig. 
5). The outsides form the wheels with their flanges 
c, c, and the middle piece b, you will need later. 

Now for axles, the best are cheap lead pencils (cost 
one cent each), but you can use common skewers 
such as butchers use, whittled down to fit. The 
axles are to fit tightly into the wheels, and turn 
with them. 

Now take a block an inch thick, four inches long, 
and two and a half wide, to hold the wheels. In 
each corner of the underside of the block, three 
quarters of an inch from the end, screw a very 
light wire screw ring (or screw eye) with a ring a 
half-inch in diameter. 

The axles run through these rings with the flanges 



1 46 A boy's workshop. 

of the wheels next to the block, to run inside the 
track. 

Next comes the car itself. 

TO MAKE THE CARS. 

Cigar boxes are nice for cars, being already very 
neatly made. You can get at the cigar stores, at 
small cost, if not as a gift, any number of boxes 
with square ends, that is, with the ends of the box 
as high as they are wide. After you have washed 
off the paper, get two boards, one a quarter or three 
eighths of an inch thick, and the other somewhat 
thinner, both being the width of the box. Saw off 
pieces three inches longer than the boxes, for plat- 
form and roof. 

First fasten your trucks under the thicker board, 
which is the bottom. To do this, bore a gimlet hole 
exactly through the middle of each truck block; 
put a sixpenny nail from the bottom, first through 
the hole in the truck block, then through the cast-off 
part of a spool (b,ftg. 5 ), or half of it if too thick, 
or a small twist spool a half-inch high. Nail one 



a boy's railway and train. 147 

to each end of the board loosely, so it will turn. 

Now, carefully take apart your cigar box, and 
mark on each long side a row of windows, like a 
passenger car, and in each end piece mark a door. 
Saw them out on a jig saw. (If you have no saw you 
can paint windows on the outside.) 

After cutting the windows and doors, put the box 
together again, with the brads which held it before, 
and laying it on to the platform board, so that each 
end of the board projects for a platform, nail them 
together. Then open the cover (which must never 
be broken off) and nail the roof board on to it in the 
same way; that is, so it will project at each end. Use 
brads for this nailing. The object of fastening the 
roof to the cover is that you may open your car 
and fill it with passengers if you choose. 

TO MAKE THE COUPLINGS. 

Take pieces of stiff copper wire three inches long, 
and with pliers bend over one end of each to form 
a hook, and the other ends into a small ring. Turn- 
ing your car upside down, lay one of these wires 



148 A boy's workshop. 

in the middle of the end, with only the hook sticking 
out, and fasten it by a small screw through the ring 
{fig. 6) ; do the same at the other end, and then 
with some small brass curtain rings, which cost 
two or three cents a dozen, 
you can couple your cars 
nicely. 

Baggage and freight cars 
you can make in the same 
way, only cutting one large 
door in the side. You can 




FIG. 4. 



make the cars as showy as you please, with paint 
of different colors, and finish them with a piece of 
muslin glued part way over the windows inside for 
shades. And now last comes the engine. 

TO MAKE THE ENGINE. 

For the foundation take a board one foot long, 
and three inches wide, which I will call the plat- 
form. To make the boiler, have a cylinder turned 
of wood, two and a half inches in diameter, and 
eight inches long ; or take a square piece of that 



a boy's railway and train. 



149 



\ 




r 






<r 


s 




\, 



FIG. 5. 



size and shave it down yourself to a cylinder; or — 
what is less trouble, and costs little — have a tin- 
ner make one for you, open at both ends, of course. 
The one I will describe, since it 
is the most simple to make, is the 
wooden one. Nail it to the plat- 
form board in such a way that the 
board will project in front one 
inch. You will have to nail it 
from the bottom of the board. 
Now take a three-quarter-inch auger and bore 
a hole one inch deep, in the top of the boiler, 
one half inch from the front end. This is 
to receive the smoke stack. To make the 
smoke stack, get a piece of dowelling 
three quarters of an inch thick, and four 
inches long, or use a bit of broom handle 
of that length. Shave the end down till 
it fits nicely into the hole on top of the 
boiler. Have it reach to the bottom of 
the hole, so as to be firm, and leave three inches 
standing up. 

To finish the smoke stack, and make it look 



:t 



FIG. 6. 



150 a boy's workshop. 

like the newest fashion in American engines, you 
must nail on to the top, with brads, a round piece of 
wood, a quarter of an inch thick, and a quarter of 
an inch larger all around than the broomstick it- 
self. Behind the boiler 

MAKE THE CAB. 

This is a peculiar thing, and the boy builder of the 
cigar-box train insists that it must be done exactly as 
he directs, in order to make a really proper cab. To 
proceed, then : 

For the front piece take a board a half-inch thick, 
three and three quarters inches high, and two and 
a half wide. Cut with a jig saw, near the top, two 
windows, one on each side, to overlook the engine. 
Nail this to the back end of the boiler, and to the 
floor. Make the two side pieces of the cab of cigar- 
box wood three inches wide and four inches high. 
In these cut two windows, also near the top. Before 
you nail these side pieces on, make a third piece 
out of half-inch wood, two and a quarter inches 
long, by two and a half wide, and nail it with brads 



a boy's railway and train. 151 

to the front piece of the cab, one inch from the floor, 
like a shelf. This is the real floor, and without it 
your cab will be a mere toy, and not at all the correct 
thing. Having this shelf in place, nail on your side 
pieces, both to the front piece, and to the shelf. 

The roof requires a piece of thin board, two and 
a half inches wide, and four inches long, so that it 
will project one inch beyond the sides. Remem- 
ber it must be put between the side pieces, and on 
top of the front piece, and nailed with brads. 

TO MAKE THE DRIVING WHEELS. 

The engine wheels are four in number, made by 
sawing from half-inch board four circles four inches 
in diameter, and from cigar-box wood an equal 
number four and a half inches in diameter. Each 
wheel is double, you see, to form the flange which 
keeps it on the track. Nail with little brads, each 
larger circle, on to a smaller one, so that the former 
will project equally all around. Then bore a hole 
exactly in the middle of each, and your wheels are 
ready. With lath nails fasten one pnir of wheels to 



152 A boy's workshop. 

the platform board at the side of the cab (flanges 
inside, of course), and the other pair to the same 
board in front, and so far that the rims of the two 
wheels on one side will be about two inches apart. 

TO MAKE THE COW-CATCHER. 

For this very important addition to the engine 
take a piece of wood three inches wide and two 
inches thick. Saw it on both sides to a point {fig. 7). 
First shave it down on top so that it forms a sharp 
point at b, fig. 7. Then draw a line through the 
middle of the top {a to b, fig. 7), and shave down 
each side so that it shall present a sharp edge all 
around from c to b, and from b to d ($g. 7). Nail 
this to the front end of the platform board with 
inch-long brads. 

TO MAKE THE TENDER. 

This is very easily made of a cigar box, one of 
the low sort, the same width as your cars, but only 
half the height. Remove the cover and take out 



A BOYS RAILWAY AND TRAIN. 1 53 

one end board. Put the box on a board a half-inch 
longer than itself, and finish with trucks as you did 
your cars. 

At the back end of this tender — the closed end — 
fasten couplings like these on the cars, but to the 
engine it may be fastened by a common wire hook 
and eye. The hook being on the engine. 

This completes your train, and if you wish to make 
a double track, you need only make your ties long 
enough to allow trains to pass, and then lay your 
tracks side by side. 

With a little ingenuity, you can make bridges and 
tunnels, freight trains, and gravel trains, and can, 
in fact, increase your " rolling 
stock " to any extent. 

I hope you will enjoy building 
this railway and train half as much 
as did the boys in the attic in 
New York City. With them the building and im- 
proving, the running of trains and the adding of 
new facilities, make a never-ending entertainment. 




XVIII. — HOW TO MAKE A GOOD FLY. 

FLY-FISHING is poetry; ordinary angling is 
prose. The latter looks to the catch ; the former 
to skill shown in the capture. There is more sport 
in hooking and playing one single bass with a light 
pliant fly-rod, than in dragging in a dozen by mere 
muscular force. To cast a fly lightly to a chosen 
spot, to note instantly the swell indicative of a 
"rise," to strike at once, but deliberately, to keep 
your rod bent, your line taut, and your fish in the 
water long enough to exhaust him, all require judg- 
ment, skill and self-control. 

But after you have put up your rod for the season, 
you may still extract pleasure from mending your 
tackle, putting reel and rod in order, and last, but 
not least, in making a supply of artificial flies for 
future fishing. 

The articles necessary for making flies are hooks, 
iS4 



HOW TO MAKE A GOOD FLY. 



*55 



silk, white wax, silkworm-gut, tinsel-feather fibres — 
dubbing for the bodies of fur, wool, silk or feathers — 
hackles for legs, and larger feathers for wings. 

First, get a good hook. The good hook is as 
sharp as a needle, and the barbed end points 
nearly exactly in a line with the end of the shank ; 
not inside of the " line of pull," a, b (see fig. i), lest 
the point come not in contact with the fish ; nor too 

far out, 
lest the 
barb be 
pulled 
flatwise 
against the fish's mouth, and thus not pierce it readily ; 
nor exactly in the line of pull, for, 
though in that case it would pierce 
anything between the point and end 
of shank, it might slip out with- 
out touching the unclosed jaws 
before the jaw had passed the 
line of pull. A point like x would 
be bad, so would one like z ; but 
one like y would be about right. 





156 A boy's workshop. 

Now take the hook between the forefinger and thumb 
of your left hand, the shank pointing to your right, 
as in fig. 2. Say the end of a strong piece of silk, 
well waxed, on the hook near the bend, and, hold- 
ing it firmly with your forefinger and thumb, wrap it 
tightly around the hook nearly to the end of the 
shank, as in fig. 3. Now coil a piece of silkworm-tug 
that has been soaked ten or fifteen minutes, and 
lay it on the hook with the coil to your right, and 
wrap it with your silk carefully and firmly down to 
the bend of the hook, cutting off the silkworm-gut a 
little before you get to the bend, 
so as to cover it well with the wrap, 

like fig. 4, at first ; it looks like fig. 

I 
5 after wrapping. Now take two 1 

of the fibres of a peacock's feather, FIG< 3 * 

technically known as peacock's herl, and a piece of 

silver or gilt tinsel ; lay the tinsel on near the bend, and 

then, after two wraps of the silk, lay on the two 

pieces of peacock's herl, which must be fastened by 

two or three wraps, as in fig. 6. Now fasten in with 

a turn or two of the silk the dubbing for the body of 

the fly. Supposing it to be peacock's herl, three or four 



^N 



HOW TO MAKE A GOOD FLY. 



J 57 




pieces will do, as in fig. 7. Then take a hackle-feather, 
shaped like fig. 8, from the 
neck or rump of a gamecock 
or brown leghorn, and fasten 
in the point with three wraps 
of your silk, as in fig. 9. 
FIG " 4 * You have now a hook, a, 

wrapped with well-waxed silk, b, with a piece of 
silkworm-gut, c, a piece of tinsel, d, two tail-pieces, 
e, e, dubbing for body,/// and hackle for legs, g. 

Now for the wings. Strip off or cut from a 
hawk's feather, like fig. 10, a clipping or two, like 
fig. 11, and fold it into a convenient width, and 
clip the ends square, like fig. 12. Lay them on 
the shank of the hook, butts 
to the left, points to the right, 
and fasten with three or four 
firm wraps, as in fig. 13. Now 
draw the silk under the wing, 
between them and the hook, 
to hold them temporarily, and going back to the 
bend of the hook, wind the dubbing, / / / around 
the hook over and to your right as far as the root of 




fig. 5. 



5» 



A BOY'S WORKSHOP. 




FIG. 6. 



the wings, leaving the hackle out; fasten 
the dubbing with 
one or two wraps, 
taking the silk from 
under the wing to 
do the wrapping. 
Next wind your tin- 
sel d up to the same 
point and fasten in 

same way. Now wind your hacjde towards the right, 

twisting the quill as 
you wind to keep 
the fibres sticking 
outwards, and pick- 
ing out any fibres 
that get entangled 
fig. 7. with a dubbing-nee- 

dle (a needle stuck in a piece of soft pine, like 
fig. 14) and fasten. Now turn back the wings 
with the points to your left, towards the bend of 
the hook; fasten back 
with one or two wraps, 
passing the silk through FIG . 8 . 





HOW TO MAKE A GOOD FLY. 



159 



an opening between the wings made by the dubbing- 
needle, to separate them. Finish by making two 
loose wraps, like fig. 15; then draw the silk through 
them tightly, like fig. 16. Touch this fasten- 
ing with a drop of 
gum-shellac, and 
it will not slip or 
be affected by 
water. Gum-shel- 
lac dissolved in 
alcohol can be got- 
ten at any drug- 
store, and should 
be rather thick. Your fly will now look like fig. 

17. 

Your flies should be rough imitations of any water- 
flies you see in your tramps, in color and number of 




fig. 9. 



parts; outrageously colored flies will be taken by 
black bass, who seem to bite at anything that 



6o 



A BOY'S WORKSHOP. 



has the nearest apologies for body, wings and 
legs. All game-fish 
bite readily at a sim- 
FIG "■ pie hackle wound KIG I2 

from bend to shank around any attractively colored 
body in the form of a caterpillar ; a good one for 
black bass is made with one reddish-brown 
hackle and two black ones ; and a body of 

peacock's herl 
wrapped with 
green or red silk 
is a good imita- 
tion of a caterpil- 
lar common here 
(in Virginia) in 
November. 
Anglers also 
make something having no counterpart in nature 




fig. 13. 



FIG. 14. 



cr*^ 



— a winged hackle — by tying 

the hackle in a winged fly back from the bend to the end 



HOW TO MAKE A GOOD FLY. 



161 




FIG. l6. 



of shank — a sort of winged caterpillar. Some fish, no 
doubt, are affected by it as by a caterpillar; others 
as by a fly; others just strike out of curiosity, as a 
kitten plays with a ball. Should 
you buy your tackle, buy from 
tackle-makers who angle oc- 
casionally themselves. They 

know more " wrinkles " in their " line " in a day than or- 
dinary makers learn in a year. Some of the best houses 
in Boston, New York and Baltimore derive their 
most valuable specialties from the presence of one 
or more actual anglers in the firms. 

Water-flies have generally, like the Mayfly, 

fig. 18, a body, 
wings, legs, and tail- 
like appendages, tech- 
nically, so you will net 
be far wrong if you 
make your fly have 
those parts, though 
fish bite at flies with 
less than these enumerated. For black bass, greens, 
yellows and reds seem the best colors, though 




FIG. 17. 



162 



a boy's workshop. 




white and black are often used. I like, however, 
flies that are combina- 
tions of bright and 
sober tints. A favorite 
fly with me has a body 
of peacock's herl brown ; 
wings, yellowish-white 

feather of chicken-hawk with discolorations on 
them; legs, a reddish-brown hackle from a game- 
cock or brown leghorn cock ; tail-pieces, two fibres, 
like wings. I put a red streak in each wing. I 
call it the " academy," after a school once under my 
care. 



XIX.— HOW TO BIND MAGAZINES. 

TT is often the case that in households where 
even several magazines are taken, that little 
money can be afforded for the purpose of binding 
them ; and it follows that they are soon destroyed, or 
else stored away and never looked at. The pretty 
covers provided for most magazines by the publishers 
are of course preferable ; but they also, of course, 
cost something. Therefore I have concluded to tell 
you of a durable, cheaper, and on the whole, pretty 
way of binding your yearly, or half-yearly volumes. 

For several years we have made it a business to 
bind up our magazines every spring before cleaning 
house time ; and we proudly exhibit to our friends 
our collections of neat, strong books which would look 
well in any library. We usually turn a corner of the 
living-room into a bindery, as we have no workshop. 

We bring in the work-bench with vise attached, 
163 



164 



A BOY S WORKSHOP. 



Sat lcwTtk grooves. 




pile our magazines on it, sort them into volumes, 
remove the covers and advertising leaves, put the 

engravings in their 
proper places if 
they are not there, 
place each volume 
according to date 
or page, lay the 

FIG. I. 

. title page and table 
of contents at the top of each pile, and there are our 
magazines ready to bind. We have meantime a little 
pot of good glue in readiness on the stove, which, 
after it is dissolved thoroughly, is better to be kept 
only warm. A little good twine, a few strips of 
strong cloth, about an inch wide, a handsaw, a pair of 
shears, and some of the old covers and leaves are 
also at hand on the bench. Also we have two bars 
of wood an inch thick, two or three inches wide, and 
about two feet long, fastened together at one or both 
ends (one end only is necessary if a vise is used) by 
a bolt five or six inches long — this is the press. 

Now we take a volume of the magazines, lay an old 
cover on each side. Making sure that the numbers 



HOW TO BIND MAGAZINES. 1 65 

are perfectly even at the back and upper ends, wo 
place them in the press with the backs projecting a 
quarter of an inch at least, placing them in the vise 
with the backs in a horizontal position (see fig. i) 
and screw up pretty tightly. Then we saw into 
the backs as far as they project in three places 
(fig. 1). Next we dip 
a piece of cord into \ _, y , > 



3S? fcont I 



wovmd 




the glue, and wind it 

back and forth once 

or twice in the grooves 

made by the saw. This, as you will see, binds the 

volume firmly together. 

Now we take as many strips of cloth as there are 
grooves, each about six inches long, and gluing them 
in the middle, place one in each groove (see fig. 2). 
Then we cut a strip of strong paper, and glue it on 
the back of the volume. 

The book may be taken immediately from the 
press, though it is better to not handle it for a little 
while, and another set of numbers be put in. Several 
volumes may be bound in a short time, and if these 
directions are followed the binding is altogether 



1 66 A boy's workshop. 

as durable as that done at a bindery would be. 

The next thing in order is to smooth the edges ; 
this we do by placing each book in the vise again — 
the tighter the better now — front edges up at first, 
and projecting far enough to allow them to be made 
even. Now we rasp them off even with the press, 
with a coarse furniture rasp, or the side of a saw. 
Sometimes we leave it thus, and sometimes we spat- 
ter-work it by dipping an old toothbrush in ink and 
drawing it across a sharp edge of wood, allowing the 
spatters to fall on the book before it is taken from 
the vise. The ends we treated in the same manner. 

No we have a pile of books, without covers, to be 
sure, but even at this stage they are more available 
than if they are not bound at all. However, we pro- 
vide covers without expense. We use old paste-board 
boxes for this purpose, cutting them a little larger 
than the volume they are intended for. We lay these 
covers in place, cover and fasten them by gluing the 
edges of the strips of cloth upon the outside smoothly ; 
the cover goes as far back as the cloth will permit. 
Then we make a cover of cloth for the back, usually 
using black or brown cambric, or selesia. The 



1 
J 


!? 


I i i ib 


Si 



HOW TO BIND MAGAZINES. 1 67 

back cloth is always at beast an inch longer than the 
covers, and about three inches wider than the back ; 
we cut coarse twine into bits a trifle longer than the 
book is thick, using as many as we may choose. 

We dip these twines ChtLX*** -vifonarik 

in paste, one at a time, 
and lay them crosswise 
of the cloth, one at FIG- 3> 

each end, at least, and just as far apart as the covers 
are long {Jig. 3.), laying the others between. Then 
we cut a strip of strong paper as wide as the cords 
are long, and just as long as the covers, and paste 
it over the cords, and then we paste the cloth down 
on the paper at the ends, and pin the completed back 
tightly around a stick — a broom handle is good — 
and let it remain there to dry. When we take it off 
we slip it over the back corners of the covers and 
fasten it strongly down with glue. 

After this the covers may be finished as elaborately 
as you may choose ; we bind the edges of most of 
ours with cloth, and then trim off the edges of some 
of the front covers of the magazines and paste them 
on. We make a pretty inside finish by laying in a 



1 68 a boy's workshop. 

double leaf of manilla paper, one half pasted to the 
inside of the cover the other being left as fly-leaf. 

The freshly bound books should be piled with plenty 
of paper between them to absorb the moisture, with 
weights atop, until they are wholly dry. Shabby books 
may be made almost as good as new by smoothing 
the leaves, rebinding and recovering ; and it is surpris- 
ing to see how pretty bits of wrapping paper, and bits 
of brown, black, or gray cloth can be made to serve 
in this work ; bits of leather may be used on the 
corners of covers. Sabbath-school papers, Lesson 
Quarterlies, etc., may thus be made into pretty volumes 
very easily. Five cents' worth of glue will bind a 
great many volumes, and the gluing is a much easier 
and better way than sewing. 



XX. — HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH. 

NEARLY ten years ago I took lessons in land- 
scape photography, and since then have made 
hundreds of photographs of places rarely visited, of 
strange people and wonderful vegetation, which have 
delighted the eyes of many friends. Assuming that 
many members of the Reading Union will wish to 
retain more permanent pictures of vacation scenes 
this summer than can be carried in memory alone, I 
propose to show how they can do this with little 
trouble and expense. 

First, I must congratulate you upon your good for- 
tune in being able to enter upon the study of photog- 
raphy in the year 1882, rather than twenty, or even 
ten, years earlier. In no other department of 
science, except perhaps in electricity, has such an 

advance been made. It was only in 1839 that 

169 



170 A BOYS WORKSHOP. 

Daguerre published his success in obtaining an image 
on a silver plate, and in 185 1 that the collodion pro- 
cess — that most in use at the present day — was 
given to the world. But within the past few years 
improvements have been made, by means of which 
the art is not confined to professional workmen, but 
can be enjoyed by all the young folks in the land. 

I well remember the disadvantages attending out- 
door photography, even no longer ago than when I 
made my first attempts. By the collodion or wet 
process it was absolutely necessary to carry a large 
trunk full of chemicals and bulky apparatus. Among 
other things there was the " dark tent ; " in its most 
compact form it was a box, about two feet and a half 
square, with curtains and aprons arranged so as to 
exclude all actinic or chemical light. After setting 
your camera in position and focusing the picture, you 
had to retire into the dark tent, arrange the curtains 
about you to exclude all outside light, and conse- 
quently air, and then you coated the glass plate with 
collodion and dipped it into the " silver bath " to 
make it sensitive to light. This operation required 
several minutes, and if the day was hot and sultry, 



HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH. 171 

the operator in the dark box was nearly suffocated 
before he emerged with the prepared plate ready for 
the camera. After exposing this he was obliged to 
hide himself again in that hot box full of chemical 
fumes, and there "develop" the picture supposed to 
be upon the glass. 

With the discovery that plates could be prepared 
ready for use at any time, and that would remain 
sensitive to the action of light for months, a new field 
was opened, in which any one could wander who had 
the inclination. By this discovery all the bottles of 
chemicals, with the dark tent and the clumsy appa- 
ratus, were done away with. Materials for a hundred 
photographs can now be carried in a small valise or 
in an ordinary trunk amongst clothes and books. 

Though an amateur, and having no greater interest 
in photography than arose from a desire to secure 
pictures of the spots I visited, I hailed the appear- 
ance of the "dry plates" and their simpler mode 
of use, for I was heartily tired of the old way. My 
ringers were always black with silver stains, and my. 
clothes streaked and stained with salts of iron and 
soda. My accidents, from the tipping over of chem- 



172 



A boy's workshop. 



icals, and in struggling over mountain roads and the 
beds of mountain torrents, were more than I could 
count on my fingers. In Florida, whenever I crawled 
into the dark tent — pitched, perhaps, on the border 
of a swamp or in the deep woods — the mosquitoes 
and sand-flies would make furious attacks upon my 
legs and nearly drive me wild, and I would be 
haunted by fear of the snakes and alligators that 
might attack me in that defenceless position — with 
my head in a sack and my hands employed. One 
day an enormous old billy-goat, taking offence at the 
outlandish appearance of my tent, as I was at work 
in it, half concealed from his view, charged on it with 
such force as to knock us all in a heap. When I had 
crawled out from the ruins, expecting to learn that an 
earthquake had passed by, I saw that billy-goat 
standing calmly by, chewing his cud, and shaking his 
head sidewise, as much as to say, "Get into that 
box again, and I'll knock you over a second time ! " 
In the West Indies it was always necessary to hire 
two negroes to carry my trunk, and as they invariably 
bore their burdens on their heads, the silver solution 
would sometimes leave a black streak down their 



HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH. I 73 

faces, even darker than their ebony countenances! 

The new discovery did away with all this trouble. 
I was quick to see this, and in one of my trips to the 
tropics carried a camera and a stock of " dry plates." 
Alas ! I had too hastily adopted a crude invention. 
I climbed mountains, descended into craters of vol- 
canoes, threaded tangled thickets, and penetrated to 
secluded valleys to photograph new scenes with my 
new instrument. Having perfect faith in the new 
invention, I did not test my plates with chemicals on 
the spot, but kept them till I returned, and then gave 
them to the photographer to manipulate. My care- 
lessness was well rewarded, for of the nearly one 
hundred plates, not one contained a perfect picture. 
I was in a condition then to sympathize with the 
great Audubon, who had a trunk full of drawings, 
the result of a year's labor, destroyed by mice. 

Unlike him, I had not a sufficiently powerful incen- 
tive to repeat my travels, and the anticipated pictures 
were gone forever. Nothing daunted, I next year 
procured another machine and tried again, this time 
in Mexico. In that year the inventor had not been 
idle, and I informed myself upon the merits of his 



174 a boy's workshop. 

invention so that my results at the end of the journey 
were such as greatly pleased me and my friends ; for 
from the plates of glass exposed to light in the 
camera flashed out fac-similes of strange idols of 
stone, grand old ruins, snow-capped volcanoes, valleys 
almost hid in dense vegetation, palms, tropical plants, 
and the picturesque features of that strange country. 

But, without further preface, let me tell you how 
you may take pictures this summer without any of the 
hindrances that I had to encouter in my first attempts. 

The first thing needed is a camera, which in its 
simplest form is a darkened box, with a lens in front, 
through which the scene is focused upon a plate in 
its back — a plate of glass prepared with chemicals 
so that its surface is sensitive to the light admitted 
through the lens. 

A few seconds of time is generally sufficient for 
the transmission of an impression to this plate, and 
before and after that " exposure " it must be kept 
away from all light until the "latent image" — the 
picture we cannot yet see — has been brought out and 
"fixed" by means of chemicals. This forms the 
"negative," which is to the finished photograph what 



HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH. 175 

an engraved block is to the engraving on paper. To 
obtain this negative is your first object ; having got 
this, you may produce from it as many prints as you 
like, at very little cost, either by taking it to a pho- 
tographer, or by continuing the process and printing 
them yourself. 

While there are several instruments in the market 
with which the negative can be taken, most of them 
are so costly as to be beyond the reach of a boy or 
a girl with a limited supply of pocket money for a 
vacation trip ; hence I shall choose one that is not 
only very cheap, but which I know by experiment 
will perform the work for which it is intended. It is 
the invention of a young man who has a practical 
knowledge of photography, and is called the " tom- 
ograph." 

At first sight it is a small mahogany box, eight by 
ten inches broad, with a strap by which one can 
carry it. But by pulling out a slide in front a lens 
is revealed ; and by drawing out another slide on the 
top an inner box is shown full of negative plates. 
This smaller box is fitted in position on top of the 
larger one, so that the plates, one at a time, can be 



176 A boy's workshop. 

dropped into a carrying-rack turned by a screw, in 
the dark chamber below. This plate having been 
placed in focus, the lens is uncapped for a few 
seconds, then recapped, and the glass is returned 
to the box above, where it is kept till evening, or 
until a favorable time for development. In this way 
all the plates — eight or ten — in the box may be 
exposed, and their places filled with fresh ones 
later on. 

The camera is supported upon a tripod, or three- 
legged stick, which can be closed up until not much 
larger than an alpenstock. 

This is the outline of the mechanical operation 
necessary to secure the negative. The plates, being 
ready prepared and packed in little boxes of a dozen 
each, are transferred to the camera at night, or in 
a dark room by day, by the aid of a red light. This 
is obtained by placing a roll of red or orange- 
colored paper — made expressly for this purpose — 
around a lamp or candle, as the light that shines 
through a medium of this color is non-actinic, or 
without the power to produce chemical change in the 
very sensitive plates. You now have a plate with a 



HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH. I 77 

latent image of the picture you desire to retain; 
this plate must pass through a chemical operation 
before that image will appear. 

Imagine yourself in a darkened room illuminated 
only by the red light, with a plate in your hand on 
which you fondly hope there is a duplicate of the 
scene before which you had set up the instrument. To 
all appearances it is a plate of plain glass, one side 
covered with a film of gelatine, and if you hold it to 
the light nothing appears to indicate the change that 
has taken place in that film since it was exposed to 
the light. The question is, how to bring that picture 
out from its hiding-place. First, you must have a 
shallow pan at hand, and place yourself near a good 
supply of water. Into the pan you pour the chemi- 
cals previously mixed, necessary for the development 
or bringing out of the hidden image. These chemi- 
cals are, oxalate of potash and protosulphate of iron. 
To simplify matters, the inventor of the tourograph 
puts up these chemicals in papers, so that you only 
have to r>ut into four ounces, or a gill, of water* one 

*The operator should bear in mind that old saying, "A pint's a pound, the 
world around," then he will remember that it contains sixteen fluid ounces, 
four ounces to the gill, &c. 



178 A boy's workshop. 

paper of the potash and another of iron; mix well, 
and the solution is ready for the plate. This must 
be placed in the tray with the film side up, and the 
solution flowed over it. When completely covered, 
let it remain, and carefully watch the development. 

This is the period of greatest anxiety for the young 
operator, for it is the critical stage of the proceed- 
ings. A few seconds will determine whether you 
have a picture before you, or merely a square of 
plain glass. Gradually the details unfold them- 
selves : the " high lights " or white portions first, 
then the " half tones " or grades of shadow, then the 
deeper shades of foliage or objects feebly lighted. 
When the view has come out distinct, seems to pro- 
gress no farther and to gradually fade away to a 
deep brown, you have got out all it is possible to 
obtain from that exposure, and the plate must be 
removed from the solution, and chemical action 
arrested by washing in clear water. 

Now you have before you tangible evidence of 
success, but your picture is not complete ; it is dull, 
perhaps obscure, and if exposed to the light of day 
would quickly vanish. It must now hejlxed in another 



HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH. 1 79 

solution and in another dish. The "fixing solution " 
is made by dissolving half an ounce of hyposulphite 
of soda in five or six ounces of water. Into this 
place the developed plate, and allow it to remain 
until all the whitish film is dissolved away. If both 
operations are faithfully performed you will have, on 
taking the plate from the solution and holding it to 
the light, a brilliant picture on glass — the negative — 
with all the lights and shadows reversed, the white 
portions quite opaque, and the dark parts almost 
transparent. 

Now wash very thoroughly in clear water, beneath 
a tap if possible, or by pouring a gentle stream over 
the glass for a few minutes, in order to remove every 
trace of superfluous chemical substance that might 
work injury. As a precaution against the possible 
peeling of the film, it is well to dip the negative in a 
strong solution of alum and water, then wash again, 
and set up to dry in a slanting position, with the film 
side next the wall. When perfectly dry a coat of 
photographic varnish, furnished with the chemicals, 
is flowed over the coated side of the glass, and the 
impression is securely fixed, ready for use in printing. 



180 a boy's workshop. 

Having secured the negative, your object is virtually 
attained: the possession of a souvenir of a vacation 
ramble, a favorite view, or of a picturesque camping- 
place. If it were my negative, I should take it to 
some good photographer, and let him prepare from it 
the prints I wanted, as that expense is small, and in- 
volves a good deal of labor for the amateur. But I 
suppose my readers will wish — as I did years ago — 
to see the whole process, and to make their own 
prints or paper pictures. 

PRINTING FROM THE NEGATIVE. 

White paper coated with albumen is made sensitive 
to light by being floated upon a solution of chloride 
of silver in water; and this, when dry, is placed 
against the negative and exposed to the sun. In this 
way, by pressing the silvered surface of the paper 
against the film side of the negative, a duplicate im- 
pression of the picture on the glass is transferred to 
the paper. This may be repeated with other pieces 
of paper any number of times, until hundreds are ob- 
tained from the same negative. Instead of attempt- 
ing to prepare the paper yourself, it would be better 



HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH. 151 

to purchase it already sensitized, which you can do of 
any dealer in photographic goods. A printing-frame, 
or grooved block with a spring back, is used in 
printing. After having placed it with the negative 
and paper in the sun, watch carefully. By removing 
the frame and retiring to a dark corner, you can ex- 
amine the paper by unspringing one-half the back at 
a time, and thus print to the degree desired. It is 
best to print a little darker than it is designed to have 
the print when finished, as it will bleach a little in the 
subsequent process of toning. This toning operation, 
as well as the cutting up of the paper, the placing of 
it on the negative and removing it, should be per- 
formed in a darkened room. When a sufficient num- 
ber of prints are done, trim them the size they are to 
be when finished, wash in two or three changes of 
water, and then place in the " toning bath," made as 
follows : Chloride of gold one grain, water ten 
ounces, saturated solution of bread soda three or four 
drops. This will change them to a deep bluish or 
purple color, and gives them that lovely tint we ad- 
mire in fine photographs. 

The chloride of gold is sent in solution, as well as 



182 a boy's workshop. 

the soda, so that you have but to follow the printed 
directions accompanying them, putting a certain 
quantity of each in the water, and your toning bath is 
at once prepared. 

After toning for a few minutes, remove the prints, 
and place in another dish containing an ounce of 
hyposulphite of soda dissolved in a pint of water ; 
allow them to remain ten minutes, and then remove 
and wash an hour or more in water — running water 
if possible — constantly changing the water and 
moving the prints about. Then dry your prints and 
the completed picture is before you, ready for mount- 
ing on a card, or pasting in an album.* If you wish 
to obtain merely a " proof," or a fair print, without 
the delicacy of shading and tone of the silver print, 
you can do this with " blue paper," by simply exposing 
this prepared paper beneath the negative, and wash- 
ing and drying without any further toning or fixing. 

These, in brief, are the various processes necessary 

* Many preparations are advertised for sticking the prints to the cards, but 
common starch paste is about as good as anything. Mix the starch in cold 
water, very thin, and then boil it, constantly stirring it to break up lumps, and 
remove from the fire soon as it reaches the boiling point. The prints should 
be wet and pasted on while quite moist, rubbing them down beneath a sheet 
of blotting-paper from the centre to the margin, in order to expel all air, that 
would otherwise cause lumps or wrinkles. 



HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH. 183 

for procuring a photographic print; but, as I have 
already remarked, the negative being your main 
object, it would be much better to rest content with 
securing that, and depend upon some photographer to 
give you the paper impressions. 

To recapitulate : For a short trip, fully equipped 
for taking photographs, we shall need the following : — 

A " tourograph," for plates 4x5 inches, with alpenstock 

tripod and lens $15.00 

One dozen 4x5 plates 1.00 

One graduate (or measuring glass) 50 

Two developing pans 40 

One pound oxalate potash, in papers ready for use, 60 
cents, half pound protosulphate of iron, in papers, 10 

cents 70 

One pound hypo' soda, in papers, 10 cents, six ounces 

varnish, 50 cents . . 60 

Sum total for apparatus and chemicals sufficient for 
development of fifty negatives .... $18.20 

If you will insist upon printing your own views, then you 

will need in addition — one printing frame . . . $60 

One bottle chloride gold sufficient for a certain number 
of prints as stated in directions with it, 50 cents, one 
bottle bicarb, soda, 10 cents 60 

Sensitized paper for one dozen prints 25 

$r-45 

In round numbers, for $20.00 you can be fully 

prepared to set up for yourself as an amateur pho- 



184 a boy's workshop. 

tographer, and after many trials, with diligence and 
perseverance, can hope to secure photographs of 
scenery, interiors, and even portraits, that will com- 
pare favorably with the work of professional artists. 
The above is such an outfit — except that I had a 
larger camera and larger stock of plates — as I bave 
carried to the West Indies and to Mexico. 

Since my return, however, I find that my friend, 
the inventor, has produced yet another instrument, 
which he calls his " pocket camera," which folds up 
into a small package but one inch and a half in thick- 
ness, and weighs but twenty-four ounces. This is so 
constructed that double plate-holders, each contain- 
ing two dry plates, form the top, sides and back of 
the camera, and the entire outfit for the taking of 
eight negatives, sold for ten dollars. 

It is only fair to state that other apparatus and 
outfits can be purchased at rates almost equally 
low, notably those of the Scovill Manufacturing 
Company, of New York, who furnish complete equip- 
ments from ten dollars up. While I recognize the 
excellence of these articles, I have selected the 
" tourograph," as being something with which I 



HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH. 185 

have experimented, and likely, from its simplicity, to 
meet the wants of beginners. 

Since the expense is reduced to so reasonable a 
sum, and the road is made so easy that any one can 
travel it, what boy or girl will be deterred from enter- 
ing this fascinating domain of photography? 

If you can secure some old room in the garret, or 
in some unused corner, cover the window with yel- 
low or orange paper, excluding all other light, and 
take to it such simple chemicals and apparatus as I 
have indicated, then what a delightful world for 
experiment and research is opened to you ! 

The mysteries of photography ; how the subtle 
changes are wrought by the potent salts and acids, 
under the influence of the sun, I cannot explain now. 
But following the outline I have sketched, the rest 
will appear as you get interested, and you will gain an 
insight into wonders hitherto unrevealed, and enjoy 
sensations to which the boys and girls of past gener- 
ations have been strangers. 



XXL — ARCHERY FOR BOYS. 

MR. MAURICE THOMPSON has excited all 
the grown-up boys who loved in their younger 
days to draw the bow, by his graceful articles on 
archery for young men and women. 

I want to tell the boys who are wide awake how 
they may, without too much labor and with but little 
expense, make their own bows and arrows and targets, 
having their fun, like their elders, in this health-giving 
and graceful recreation. 

In the first place, after you have made your imple- 
ments for the sport, you must never shoot at or 
towards anyone; nor must you ever shoot directly 
upwards. In the one case you may maim some one 
for life, and in the other you may put out your own 
eye as an acquaintance of the writer's once did 
in Virginia. 

186 



ARCHERY FOR BOYS. 



187 



S 



,0 




a 



To make a bow take a piece of 
any tough, elastic wood, as cedar, 
ash, sassafras or hickory, well-sea- 
soned, about your own length. 
Trim it so as to taper gradually 
from the centre to the ends, keep- 
ing it flat, at first, until you have 
it as in this sketch — for a boy 
say, five feet in height: (Fig. A) 

This represents a bow five feet 
long, one and a quarter inches 
broad in the middle, three-fourths 
of an inch thick at the centre, 
and a half-inch scant at the ends 
in breadth and thickness. 

Bend the bow across your knee, 
pulling back both ends, one in each 
hand, the centre against your knee, 
and see whether it is easily bent, 
and whether it springs readily 
back to its original position. 
If so your bow is about the right 
size. Cut near each end the 



notch for the string 
as in this figure : 
(Fig. B.) 



T/q.S. 



i88 



A boy's workshop. 




Bevel the side of the bow which is to be held 
towards you, so that a section Tj^/> 
of your bow will look like this 
figure: (Fig. C.) 

The back or flat part is 
held from you in shooting, and the bevelled or 
rounded part towards you. Scrape the bow with 
glass and smooth it with sand-paper. 
I 1 j4V ll£ To shape your bow lay it on a stout, 

* flat piece of timber, and drive five ten- 
."S penny nails in the timber, one at the 

g centre of your bow, and the others 
.2 as in figure below, so as to bend the 
.2 ends for about six inches in a direc- 
ts tion contrary to the direction in which 
•§ you draw the bow : (Fig. D.) 

a 

M Your bow is now finished as far as 
I the wood-work is concerned, and you 
I may proceed to wrap it from end to 
••• end with silk or colored twine, increas- 
| ing its elasticity and improving the ap- 

* pearance. The ends of the wrap 
^ must be concealed as in wrapping a 

* fish-hook. Glue with Spaulding's glue 
£ a piece of velvet or even red flannel 
ft around the middle to mark your hand- 



ARCHERY FOR BOYS. l8g 

hold. The ends may in like manner be ornamented 
by glueing colored pieces upon them. 

A hempen string, whipped in the middle with 
colored silk, to mark the place for your arrow nock to 
be put, in shooting, will make a very good string. 

For arrows any light, tough wood, which splits 
straight, will do. I use white pine, which may be 
gotten from an ordinary store-box, and for hunting- 
arrows seasoned hickory. These must be trimmed 
straight and true, until they are in thickness about 
the size of ordinary cedar pencils, from twenty-five to 
twenty-eight inches in length. They must be feath- 
ered and weighted either with lead or copper, or by 
fastening on sharp awl-points or steel arrow-points 
with wire. 

I used to make six different kinds ; a simple 
copper-wrap, a blunt leaden head, a sharp leaden 
head like a minie bullet, an awl-point wrapped with 
copper wire and soldered, and a broad-head hunting- 
arrow. 

To make a copper wrap, wrap with copper wire the 
last half-inch of the arrow until you get near the end, 
then lay a needle as large as your wire obliquely 
along the arrow as in this figure : (Fig. E.) Continue 
the wrapping until you have weighted the arrow 
sufficiently ; draw out the needle and thrust the end 



[90 



A BOY'S WORKSHOP. 



&<?.£, 




of your wire through the little passage kept by the 
needle, and draw it tight thus : (Fig. F.) 




(Before wrap was drawn through.) 



JV..C, 



(After wire was drawn through.) 

A blunt leaden head is made by pouring three or 

four melted buck-shot into a cylinder of paper, 

wrapped around the end of the arrow, slightly larger 

at the open end, and tied on by a piece of thread. 

y „~ Tne wood of the 

XTJ<f,JZ0 arrow mugt be 

cut thus: (Fig. 
H.) 



ARCHERY FOR BOYS. 



I 9 I 



The paper is put on thus : (Fig. X.) 



Jt&X. 




It should look like 
been poured in 
and the paper 
all stripped off. 
(Fig. I.) 



this after the metal has 



It should look 
like this after being 
sharpened like a 
minie bullet : (Fig. J.) 



An awl-point arrow is made by inserting the point 
in the end of the arrow, wrapping with copper wire, 
and getting a tinner to drop some solder at the end 



to fasten the 



wire and awl 
point firmly 
together. The 
awl-point looks 



: 7h*r 




&*£. 




like this: (Fig. K.) 
The awls (like Fig. 
L) are filed like this 
into teeth -like 



192 



A boy's workshop. 



Jfy.jv: 



notches on the part 

going into the 

wood, and roundly 

sharp on the other 

part thus: (Fig. M.) These may be shot into an 

oak-tree and extracted by a twist of the hand close to 

the arrow-point. 

The broad-head 
hunting-point (Fig. 
N) is put on by 
slitting the arrow 
and inserting the 
flat handle of the 
arrow point, and 

wrapping it with silk, sinews, or copper wire. These 

points can be sharpened along the line A B on a 

whetstone, and will cut like knives. The hunting 

arrow looks like this : (Fig. O.) 



^fyj^ 




sfU 



^4,0, 




To feather an arrow you strip a goose feather from 
the quill and, after clipping off the part near the 
quill-end, you mark a line down the arrow from a 



ARCHERY FOR BOYS. 



93 



point one inch from the nock and, spreading some 
Spaulding's glue along that line apply the feather, 
lightly pressing it home with forefinger and thumb. 
After you have glued on one piece lay aside the 
arrow and fix another, and so on until the first is 
set, so that you may put on another piece. When 
you have fastened these feathers on each arrow lay 
them aside for ten or twelve hours. The three 
feathers will look like this : (Fig. P.) 



J^tfi 2 ? 




A boy can hardly make a good quiver unless he 
were to kill some furred animal and make a cylin- 
drical case such as the Indians have, out of its skin. 
I am afraid that he usually would have to get a har- 
ness-maker to make him a quiver out of leather, 
somewhat larger at the top than at the bottom. It 
should hold from eight to twelve arrows. 

A good target may be made of soft pine, circular 
or elliptical in shape. In the latter case a line-shot 
might count, even though it were farther from the 



T94 



a boy's workshop. 



centre. Pieces should be tacked to the back of this 
target at right angles to the grain of the wood. 
Differently-colored circles or rings, a little more than 
the width of an arrow, must be painted on this, with a 
centre twice the width of an arrow. The outer ring 




y^^m 



ARCHERY FOR BOYS. I95 

counts one, the next two, three, four and so on to 
the centre, which of course counts highest. By this 
plan one's score could be told with perfect ac- 
curacy. 

If an arrow struck on a line between number three 
and four it counts three and a half. Anything like 
this rarely happens. The target is fixed upon an 
easel formed of three pieces of wood fastened 
together by a string at the top, and it ought to lean 
back at the top slightly, away from the archer. 

The three arrows count seven, nine, ten — twenty-six 
in all. In target-shooting you should use awl-pointed, 
wire-wrapped arrows, as they can be easily drawn out 
of even a wooden target. 



XXII. — SIR WALTER SCOTT'S IDEA. 

POME years ago, while reading Lockhart's Life of 
^-^ Sir Walter Scott, I came across a passage, in 
the autobiographical part, which struck me as so 
suggestive that I copied it ; and here I copy it again, 
after which I will say my little say on the subject ( it 
was when he was a youth, you know) : 

Wherever I went, I cut a piece of a branch from a tree — 
these constituted what I called my log-book ; and I intended to 
have a set of chessmen out of them, each having reference to 
the place where it was cut — as the kings from Falkland and 
Holy Rood ; the queens from Queen Mary's yew-tree at Crooks- 
ton ; the bishops from abbeys or Episcopal palaces ; the 
knights from baronial residences ; the rooks from royal for- 
tresses ; and the pawns generally from places worthy of his- 
torical note. 

Do you suppose he ever did it ? 
Now I had had the " collecting craze " for years, 
just as most boys and girls have now ; and wherever 
196 



SIR WALTER SCOTT'S IDEA. 197 

I had been, had secured something, till a most 
miscellaneous accumulation was packed away in boxes 
and drawers about the house. Moreover, the rest of 
the children, as they grew up, had been possessed 
with the same idea. The boy who went South had 
obtained specimens of different kinds of woods ; the 
one who was in the army had picked up relics ; the girl 
who went to the White Mountains, and afterwards to 
Ticonderoga, had gathered mosses, leaves, and wild 
flowers. 

Besides, all of us who had a duplicate or a bit to 
spare, had exchanged with some of our friends, just 
as you are all doing. The thing is in the air. Boys 
are boys, and girls are girls, everywhere ; and fashions 
repeat themselves, and are passed on. You are doing 
what we did before you ; and by and by, others will 
do as you are doing. 

The result was that we had a little of everything, 
and a great deal, a very great deal all told ; and 
when spring house-cleaning came around, and as in 
all proper households, every closet and drawer, bag 
and bundle was turned inside out, our mother would 
say : " Why don't you make something out of these 



198 A boy's workshop. 

things ? Seems to me if I couldn't, I'd give them 
to somebody who would." 

There was the trouble — we meant to ; forever 
meaning to do something ; but that class, whether old 
or young, does not usually accomplish much. 

But let me tell you of things that /ta7jebeen done — 
by whom it does not matter. One boy started up on 
Sir Walter's plan, and set the example for his com- 
rades (besides correspondents); so that presently 
hand-books on chess made their appearance in the 
neighborhood ; and there began to be a great deal 
of turning on lathes, and fine sawing, and whittling, 
and sand-papering. Pretty soon chess was all the 
talk ; and as that game is one which requires in 
Wordsworth's line (written on an altogether different 
subject ) 

Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill, 

( the strength being strength of purpose ) also a 
good head for planning, and a memory, it turned 
out that the chessmen fancy proved a good thing. 
Nothing outside of good, hard, school studies can 
better discipline some of the faculties than that game. 



SIR WALTER SCOTT'S IDEA. 199 

It is indeed no light accomplishment to play even 
tolerably well. Besides, when those boys were ab 
sorbed in chess, their fathers and mothers did not 
have to worry about them when they were away in the 
evening. 

One set had historic associations almost the next 
best thing to Sir Walter's. Think of the king being 
made of a piece of wood from Mount Vernon ; a 
castle ( or rook ) of a piece from Fort Ticonderoga 
( we have forts, or ruins of forts, enough ) ; a knight 
from a piece of John Brown's scaffold ; and the 
pawns from a peach-tree that grew from a stone a 
soldier had thrown away on a Virginia battlefield. 

Chessmen can be made from specimens of wood of 
our native trees ; solid oak for king or castle, delicate 
poplar or birch for the queen, and so on ; or of any 
curious and rare woods ; and almost all have some 
beauty of grain or markings. They can be turned on 
a lathe, and then finished in grooves and otherwise, 
or wholly done with the knife. Many, as you know, 
are in two pieces ; and the king and queen in some 
sets can be taken apart in two places, making three. 

There are great opportunities in pieces of wood. 



2 00 A BOYS WORKSHOP. 

The boy who went to the war brought home enough 
of Southern woods for several canes; and for con- 
venience in packing, he cut it in sections about six 
inches long ; purposing to fit them together on the 
same principle that a cap of rubber is fitted to the end 
of a pencil ; by cutting away on one piece- to slip into 
a hole made in the next, plug fashion, and there 
glued. 

Relics in wood can be worked into a glove box or 
handkerchief box, skilfully joining the parts and as 
skilfully gluing them. Picture frames suggest another 
form. There is one here made by a clerk in a store 
while waiting for customers. It has over three hundred 
small strips, lapping in a fanciful way, and not a 
tack, or a brad is used in the work ; but this is too 
complicated. 

It is easier to turn out checker-men or napkin- 
rings, or make pen-holders, or paper-knives. Very 
elegant paper-knives can be fashioned, having one 
kind for the blade and two for the handle. But all 
this woodwork must be done with great care, accuracy 
and nicety, not only in the cutting and dovetailing 
or matching of the parts, but in the gluing and fin- 



SIR WALTER SCOTT S IDEA. 201 

ishing off, including a delicate oiling to bring out the 
grain. It is nice work; to be sure it is. But if sol- 
diers in prisons can do such things as some of our 
soldiers did, with not much besides a jack-knife to do 
with, pray cannot a smart Western or Eastern boy do 
as much ? — between scroll saws and the variety of 
choice tools within his reach, he is not the boy I take 
him for if he cannot make himself a set of chessmen, 
or a work-box for his sister. 

As for minerals, I lately saw at a State Fair a box 
on which broken-up specimens from that State were 
glued, crusting it all over with stone that sparkled in 
places like crystal. On each specimen was a mere 
speck of paper with a number on it, which corre- 
sponded to a number on a written list placed inside, 
telling what they were — beryl, tourmaline, quartz, 
etc., etc., and I thought it an admirable thing. 

In a parlor, arranged in a border around the little 
iron fence in front of the coal grate I once saw a 
curious display of cobble-stones brought home from 
different beaches. The lady who put them there was 
artistic, and the effect was pretty. Sea-shells of deli- 
cate varieties can be used as necklaces or bracelets if 



202 A BOY'S WORKSHOP. 

pierced with a red-hot darning needle, or in some way 
bored to admit of being strung ; some of those lovely, 
iridescent, foreign shells, strung 'in such a way, are 
greatly to be desired. You can think of so many 
ways to put them to pretty use ! 

Mosses and lichens you can group on card-board 
or glue them to a wooden cross. With leaves and 
pressed flowers you can do no end of things. You 
can mount them on card-board, or make a wreath 
of them around a piece of wire or rattan ; or orna- 
ment a fan with them — a round, Japanese fan, re- 
covering it with silk or paper of a neutral color, for 
background. One girl made a transparency with 
three or four bright autumn leaves (from a wood- 
bine ), which were gathered from among some that 
had fallen at Longfellow's gate — just where the 
poet's feet had passed in and out hundreds of times. 
She cut two pieces of coarse lace to fit the window- 
pane, glued her cluster of leaves in the centre between 
them, then overcast the outer edges and put on a deep 
binding of crimson velvet. As the light streamed 
through they were gorgeous as old stained glass. 

If you collect relics, souvenirs, momentos, curiosi- 



SIR WALTER SCOTT'S IDEA. 203 

ties, they are worth arranging. If you get tired of 
them, give them to somebody else. 

All these articles require much painstaking. They 
will be spoiled for any person of good taste if they 
are daubed, out of proportion, or awry. Don't let 
them have a home-made look either. They need 
not. No reason why a boy of average skill should 
not do as well, after some experience, as those sailors 
in the light-ships ; or why a girl should not, with care 
and all her trying, make as pretty things as the gypsy 
women or the nuns, of whom people like so well to 
buy. 



XXIII. — KNOTS, HITCHES AND SPLICES. 

WHEN I was a boy (which was not sq very long 
ago), it was my fortune, one time, to make a 
trip from Bristol, Rhode Island, to New York, as a 
sort of working passenger in the sloop Resolution, 
Captain Israel Northup. One morning the captain 
called out to me from the wheel to bring aft a bucket 
of water, at the same time pointing to a wooden pail 
that stood on the deck near me. I therefore made 
fast (as I thought) to the handle of the pail the end of 
the peak halliards and dropped it over the side. It 
filled readily enough, and I was carelessly pulling it 
up again, when suddenly, to my great chagrin, the 
knot that I had made untied itself, and away went the 
pail drifting rapidly astern. 

Captain Israel, although he had witnessed the whole 
of this performance, said nothing at the time. But a 
204 



KNOTS, HITCHES AND SPLICES. 



205 




FIG. I.— ANCHOR-BEND. 



little later, chancing to walk 
past where I was sitting, he 
picked up the end of a rope, 
and, running it through a ring- 
bolt near by, showed me the 
knot which you see in Fig. 1. 
"The next time you throw a bucket overboard," said 
he, " you'd better make it fast with an Anchor-bend." 
Then in the kindness of his heart he sat down on 
the rail beside me and gave me a practical lesson 
(afterwards several times renewed) in the matter of 
rope-tying. 

"There is some things about ropes that a boy 
must know to be wuth anything at all," observed he. 
"An' there mought be times when a man would give 
all Cuby ter know how ter tie two ropes together so't 
they'd stay." 

Believing that 
these words of 
Captain Israel 
are worth heed- 
ing, and wishing, 
so far as is possible in an article like this, to do for other 




THE WRONG WAY. 



206 A boy's workshop. 

boys what the worthy old sailor did for me, I shall ask 
the readers — both boys and girls, mind you — to take 
a rope and practise, according to the following direc- 
tions, some few of the most important knots, hitches 
and splices. 

The first thing to be sure of is the right way to 
fasten together two pieces of string or rope. That is 
a thing that some of us have to do twenty times a 
day ; and it is quite probable that twenty times a day 
we do it wrong. Suppose that you wish to lengthen 
your fish-line, or add another ball to your kite-string: 
how will you do it ? Shall you lay the two ends side 
by side and then twist them together into a knot just 
such as your sister would make in the end of her 
thread, as is seen in Fig. 2 ? 

If you do, you may fairly expect that your fish (if 
you hook him) will get away with the main part of 
your line, or that presently your kite will go slurry- 
ing off to northward far out of your sight, until you 
find it again, half an hour later, after a hot chase, 
hanging tangled and torn in one of the trees of farm- 
er Applewood's orchard. Such a knot is at least as 
likely to slip as to hold, and, if tied in a rope, is lia- 



KNOTS. HITCHES AND SPLICES. 



207 



FIG. 3. 




A GRANNY. 



ble sooner or later to cut the rope, because the strain 
is at right angles. What is really wanted is a Square- 
knot (Fig. 3, a). 

Take the two ends and 
tie them together exactly as 
you would tie a " hard-knot " 
in your shoe-string. Only 
you must be careful and not 
tie a Granny (Fig. 3, b). 

One may slip, the other 
won't. 

Fig. 4 is a Becket-hitch, 
the proper knot for joining a large and a smaller 
rope. It will be useful, for example, when the keleg- 
line of your boat is too short, and the 
only line at hand to bend on to it is a 
stout piece of hemp twine. 

A loop at the end of a rope — that is, 
a loop that will not draw up — is another 
knot that has frequently to be made. 
And yet few people know how to make 
it. I know a very bright young fellow 

. FIG. 4.— A 

living out at the Highlands, who the becket-hitch 




208 



a boy's workshop. 



other day made a loop in the end of a rope which 
he knew would not slip, and then, squeezing it over 
his dog's head, tied him to the kennel and went off 
to school by himself. But the loop did slip, and 
poor Don almost choked to death before his plight 
was discovered. What is wanted in such a case 
is a Bowline. 

Make a bight near the end of your rope, as in the 
first cut of Fig. 5. Seize this 
with the left hand at a, and 
then with the right hand pass 
the end b up through the bight, 
around behind the main part 
of the rope at c and down in 
front of it through the bight 
again as in d. Draw this tight 
and you have the much-talked-of Bowline. It is a very 
simple matter, as you see ; but with it you can make a 
slip-noose that will give you no trouble in lacing up 
your box, or you can put your dog's head in it without 
fear of coming home and finding him "dead at his 
post ;" or the farmer's daughter can safely tether a 




FIG. 5. — THE BOWLINE. 



KNOTS, HITCHES AND SPLICES. 



209 



pet pony or the bleating calf out to feed upon the 
fresh grass. 

While speaking still of the ends of ropes, let us 
stop and learn to "fasten them off " properly to pre- 
vent their untwisting or fraying out. The painter or 
main-sheet of your boat, Bridget's clothes-line, your 




FIG. 6. 



FIG. 7. 



FIG. 8. 



FIG. 9. 



little sister's jump-rope, and indeed any rope whose 
end is not (like the Irishman's) cut off altogether, 
may need such treatment. The simplest method is 
to " serve " or wind the end with small twine. A 
Single-wall (Fig. 6), or a Double-wall (Fig. 7), is bet- 
ter. But better still is the Boatswain's-whipping, 
formed by making an inverted single-wall and then 
splicing the ends back over the rope itself (Fig. 8 
and Fig. 9). 



2IO 



A boy's workshop. 



The most elegant of all such, however, is 




FIG. 12. FTG. 13. FIG. 14. 

THE FIVE STEPS OF THE STOPPER-KNOT. 



through the bight of a, and pull tight; this forms 
a Single-wall (Fig. n). Now lay a over d f b 
over e, c over b and through the bight of a, and 
draw tight (Fig 12). 

Next pass b down around f and up through the 
bight g, and do the same with a and c, forming Fig. 13. 



KNOTS, HITCHES AND SPLICES. 



211 



FIG. 15. — A SHEEPSHANK, BE- 
FORE IT IS DRAWN TIGHT. 



Then pass each strand by the side of the strands 
in the crown down through the walling to form the 
" double-crown," and cut close the ends a, b (and c), 
producing Fig. 14. 

A Sheepshank (Fig. 15) is a knot by which a rope 
may be made shorter, or (as a young yacht-woman of 

my acquaintance recently 
expressed it) "a tuck tak- 
en in it." If the tide has 
come in and you wish 
to shorten the mooring- 
line of your boat, or if the line by which your 
campaign flag is suspended across the street is too 
loose, or your clothesline, or your swing, has sagged 
frightfully, the Sheepshank will gather up the slack 
for you and hold it firmly. 

When one wants to make 
an artificial handle for an 
old jug or some other vessel, 
the True-Lover's knot is used, 
as seen in Fig 16. 

Tie two loose knots, a, b, 

FIG. 16. — THE TRUE-LOV- 

as in the first cut of Fig. 17 ; ER > S KNOTt 




2T2 



a boy's WORKSHOP. 



pass the bight a through the opening f, the bight b 
through g, pull the loops equal, and, to complete the 
knot as in second cut of Fig. 17, join the ends c, 
d, by a long splice at e. 

The Jar-sling, seen in Fig. 20, serves, a similar pur- 
pose. You are out picnicking, perhaps, and you sud- 
denly find it desirable to convert an empty gherkin 
bottle into a swing- vessel in which to take home alive 
some tadpoles or minnows. In a long piece of 
cord make a large loop as in Fig. 18, and hold the 
bight against the standing parts, a, a ; pass the thumb 
and forefinger of the other hand down through c, lay 
hold of b where the crook of the imaginary wire is 
seen, and draw it through c down a little below a. a, 
as in Fig 19, d t and hold it there. Now pass the 

thumb and fore- 
finger down 
through the op- 
ening e (in the 
way the wire 
goes), lay hold 
of g, and draw 
it up through 




fig. 17. 



KNOTS, HITCHES AND SPLICES. 



213 



e, forming the complete knot as in Fig. 20. 
One more knot, the Turk's-head (Fig. 23), remains 
to be described before we pass to the briefer subject 
of hitches. Take a long piece of fishing-cord, place the 
end a against the forefinger, wind the cord around the 
two fingers and hold it with the thumb, as in Fig. 
21. 






FIG. 18. 



FIG. 19. 



FIG. 20. 



Now with the other hand lay the part b over the part 
c, and while in that position pass the end a down be- 
tween them, over the first crossing, under left strand, 
up between, over second crossing, under right strand, 
up between ; take the hitch off your fingers, and it will 
be as in Fig. 22. 

Next pass the loose end through the open- 




214 a boy's workshop. 

ing d, laying it against 

the cord a ; then with 

it follow that strand (a) 

over and under, over 

and under, until you 

have a complete plait 

of three cords. Pass 

the knot over a stick to make it taut, and cut the ends 

close. 

The Turk's-head knot, like the two preceding it, 
will tax your precision, 
deftness and patience, and 
is an ornamental rather 
«HS*a*a& than a useful knot. You 
may weave one from wire 
or cord about the handle 
of your cane or riding- 
whip, or you may pull a few hairs from old Dob- 
bin's tail and make them into a very pretty horse- 
hair ring for your cousin Fanny when you two are 
out driving together along the forest road. 

The knots in Figs. 24, 25 and 26 explain themselves ; 
they are often useful to picnickers and campers-out. 




fig. 23. 



KNOTS, HITCHES AND SPLICES. 215 

Hitches are no less knots than any of the foregoing; 




FIG. 25. — TO TIE A 

SHORT LINE, TO WHICH 

A HOOK IS ATTACHED, 

FIG. 24.— TWO WAYS TO A LONGER R 

OF FASTENING A WEIGHT TO A LINE. GROUND LINE. 

but they are knots used to fasten the end of a rope to 
any object in such manner as to be easily cast off 
when no longer needed. They are few in number, 
and all very simple and easily described. 

A Blackwall hitch is merely a loop 
thrown about a hook, as in Fig. 27, in such 
a way that the main part of the rope, <:, 
being pulled downward, the part a jams 
the part b against the hook so firmly that 
while the strain is kept up the knot can- 
not possibly slip. Sailors use this hitch 
very frequently, but it can be used on land 
a line to as we u as at sea> If haye retreated 

A F I S H- J ' 

hook. in a game of "Chase," to the topmost 

branch of the oak-tree on the lawn, and have a rope in 





2l6 

your hand just long enough to reach the ground and no 
longer, just make, in a single instant of time, 
a Blackwall hitch in the crotch of the limb, and, if 
you dare trust yourself to it, it will take you to the 
ground in perfect safety, long before 
your pursuer can climb down again 
by the way he came up ; and you can 
carry off your rope with you. 

Or possibly you might be " up a 
tree " in a different way. Old Tib- 
betts, your father's gardener, not daring FIG - 2 7-— black- 

WALL HITCH. 

to trust himself away from mother 
earth, has sent you up into the elm tree to saw off 
for him the limb that is growing too near the 
house. But that limb must not be allowed to come 
crashing down ; and so, with the rope you have 
taken up with you, you cast about it, while you 
saw, a Timber hitch, shown in Fig. 28. 

Of all hitches, however, the one which any man or 
boy can least afford not to know is the Clove 
hitch. Make two bights or loops, as in Fig. 29 ; 
hold them between the thumbs and forefingers 



KNOTS, HITCHES AND SPLICES. 



217 




FIG. 28 TIMBER 

HITCH. 



at a, b\ slide the left loop over 
the right loop ; then slip the 
"" double loop thus formed over the 
table-leg, or your brother Willie's 
finger, or anything that will repre- 
sent a post, and draw tight by 
the end (Fig. 30). Practise this 
until your fingers can do it swiftly and of themselves, 
just as your tongue can say the alphabet ; for a 
Clove hitch, when it is used, needs to be made 
quickly and handsomely. I once 
saw a young cadet from Annap- 
olis, who had been out on a sailing 
party with some ladies and had 
jumped ashore with a rope, hesitate 
at least half a minute before he could 
think how to make the proper knot, while a number 
of old sea captains sitting by were watching him and 
laughing among themselves. A Clove hitch may be 
used, too, when, while out fishing, you extemporize 
an anchor by tying a rope to a stone. And in Fig. 
31 you see again how this knot, e (with a half -hitch, 
/, in front of it), is used to tow a floating spar 




2l8 



A BOY'S WORKSHOP. 




FIG. 30. — THE CLOVE 
HITCH. 



or drag a piece of timber across the field. 
Two other hitches, a Rolling 
hitch and a Cat's-paw, are 
shown in Fig. 32. 

Splicing is a process by 
which ropes are joined together 
so as to leave no knot. I ap- 
preciated its importance the 
other morning when I saw an 
intelligent man of fifty work 

for an hour to splice a hammock rope. Where it is 

specially important that the joining be a very nice 

and smooth one, the " short " splice is used. It is 

made by passing the strands of one piece in 

and out between those 

of the other. The short 

splice always leaves the 

spliced part thicker and 

clumsier than the rest of 




FIG. 3 



FLOATING SPAR. 



the rope. If it is desirable that the joining be a very 
neat one, so as to admit of the rope's running readily 
through the sheave-hole of a block, the " long " splice 
is necessary. This is made by unwinding each end 



KNOTS, HINCHES AND SPLICES. 



219 




A ROLLING HITCH 



about two inches, placing the strands as in the short 

splice, then un- 
winding one 
strand further 
back, and winding 
the corresponding 
strand of the other 
fig. 32. a cat's-paw. piece in its place ; 

proceeding in the same way with the other strands, and 
then fastening the ends in such a way that it is 
almost impossible to detect the splice. We have not 
space to de- 
scribe here the 
exact mode of 
procedure ; but 
there is scarce- 
ly a town or 
village any- 
where but has 
its " old sailor," 

and there is no old sailor anywhere but will 

be glad to come and give you all a lesson in splicing. 

A splice that you can very easily learn for your- 




fig. 34. 



220 



A boy's workshop. 




selves, however, is the Eye-splice. First make 

yourself a 

marling- 

spike — i f 

you have 

not the gen- 
s'*^ "Hj ~~^&T\ 

uine arti- 

fig. 35. fig. 36. fig. 37. c 1 e — by 

whittling down to a point a piece of hard wood. 
I have found that the half of a clothes-pin, 
so treated, answered the purpose exceedingly well. 
Then take a piece of good three-strand rope, unwind 
the strands, and place them as you see a, fr, c, in 
Fig. 33. Open the strand d and pass a through it, 
as in Fig. 34 ; then open e and pass b over d and 
under e, as in Fig. 35. Turn the eye over, Fig. 36, 
open/and pass c through it, as in Fig. 37, and pull 
the strands tight. Now pass a over the strand next 
it, under the next one, and so on with the others. 
Proceed in the same way until the splice is about an 
inch long. Then stretch the eye (holding by the 
rope) to tighten everything, and cut the ends close. 
If you will make a neat Eye-splice all by yourself and 



KNOTS, HITCHES AND SPLICES. 22 I 

take it to the old sailor aforementioned, he will be sure 
to think it worth while to teach you all he knows, and 
he will be likely to tell you many things about knots, 
hitches and splices which are of necessity omitted here. 



39 1904 



